Lincoln Didn't Free The Enslaved. They Freed Themselves.

abraham lincoln did not free the enslaved  the enslaved freed themselves for decades   historians have argued for the agency of black  americans and securing their own liberation   during the civil war but time and time again  lincoln is touted by his most well-known monikers   the great emancipator or savior of the  union his entire presidential legacy   is often summarized in an easy one-liner  lincoln freed the slaves [Music]   in america slavery died a painful death on the  ground during the civil war enslaved people did   not wait for white liberators they watched  many of their slaveholders leave to fight   and so they left for freedom enslaved people by  the hundreds of thousands ran away to union lines   and northern cities to escape their bondage  their massive migration forced the nation to   place the end of slavery on the national  political agenda lincoln is perhaps one of   the few presidents who require constant revisiting  because black leaders abolitionists and political   activists who persuaded lincoln to transform  the nation have not been properly centered   we have looked for abolition in all the wrong  places freedom did not come from the white house   or congress black people were not given freedom  they forced freedom to become a national mandate   when the civil war finally ended lincoln  admitted i claim not to have controlled events   but confessed plainly that events have controlled  me in the end lincoln's dilemma was not reuniting   the confederacy to america it was getting white  americans himself included to relinquish their   allegiance to white supremacy this dilemma  remains for every president elected to office   what to do with white people the myth of  whiteness as supreme is such a fully formed   identity in america that neither the north nor the  south has been able to renounce their commitment   to racial domination during reconstruction  something incredible happened black americans   went from being enslaved to elected officials  black americans built schools public health   departments roads and infrastructure charitable  institutions for the elderly mentally ill   they cultivated land created banks and managed  to invest their money in their own communities   the dilemma has never been black people's  capacity to survive and succeed the dilemma is   white people's ability to accept black humanity  and forfeit the myth of their supremacy [Music]

Channel: The Emancipator

Views: 5,128

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Id: 0HUe1RjVobo

Length: 2min 49sec (169 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 17 2022