Name: ______Date: ______Period: ____
Lincoln Quotes on Slavery
Directions: Read each of the quotes below said by Abraham Lincoln on the topic of slavery.
Explain each quote: what does Lincoln mean? What are his political views? What does he think about slavery politically and personally?
HISTORY’S VOICES 1 – Describing seeing slavery while working on a boat along the Mississippi River when he was 19 years old:
“A gentleman had purchased twelve Negroes in different parts of Kentucky and was taking them to a farm in the South. They were chained six and six together … like so many fish upon a trot-line. In this condition they were being separated forever from the scenes of their childhood, their friends, their fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them, from their wives and children.”
—Abraham Lincoln, 1841
HISTORY’S VOICES 2 – While speaking at a Republican convention in Illinois when running for Senator:
“‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”
—Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858
HISTORY’S VOICES 3 – During a debate with political opponent Stephen Douglas:
“I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man.”
—Abraham Lincoln, August 21, 1858
HISTORY’S VOICES 4 – During a political debate, being made fun of for thinking that blacks and whites could be seen as equal:
“I will say then that I am not, nor have ever been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.”
—Abraham Lincoln, September 18, 1858