Error message

The image style of field_banner_image field is broken on the node bundle special_events. Try (re)setting the image style in the display settings and form display settings.
illustration of Lincoln

Lincoln and the Abolitionists

Presented By
Fred Kaplan

Abraham Lincoln sealed the legacy of his presidency on January 1, 1963, signing the Emancipation Proclamation. But was he the transcendent champion of African-American freedom that history books now depict?

Author Fred Kaplan tempers that image. In a discussion of his new book Lincoln and the Abolitionists: John Quincy Adams, Slavery, and the Civil War, he casts Lincoln as an “antislavery moralist” – repulsed by human bondage but generally more talk than action – as opposed to “antislavery activists” such as Adams. Lincoln, for example, favored colonization in Africa for slaves and men, women, and children who'd been freed. He did not believe the U.S. could survive with multiple races. Adams aligned with abolitionists and foresaw a multiracial, multicultural American society.

Kaplan previously spoke at the Library in 2014 about his biography of Adams.

Listen
Upcoming in this series:
Watch or Listen to Past Events in this Series:

Edward P. Crapol

John Tyler

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 6:30pm
The first vice president to occupy the White House after the death of the incumbent, John Tyler was derided by critics as “His Accidency.” Yet historian Edward P. Cr...
12
Sep
Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marr...
Plaza Branch |
6:30pm
23
May
Zachary Karabell: Chester Alan Arthur
Plaza Branch |
6:30pm
21
Apr
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Plaza Branch |
6:30pm
20
Mar
John F. Kennedy
Plaza Branch |
6:30pm
illustration of Lincoln

Lincoln and the Abolitionists

Date & Location
In Person
Details
Adults