Reddit reviews A Just and Generous Nation: Abraham Lincoln and the Fight for American Opportunity

Again, your understanding of the Civil War and Reconstruction as well as Abraham Lincoln's political ideology are simply mistaken. I would advise you to read this book

https://www.amazon.com/Just-Generous-Nation-American-Opportunity/dp/0465028306?ie=UTF8&tag=saloncom08-20

or at least this summary of it

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/26/we_have_lincoln_wrong_our_greatest_lincoln_historian_explains_his_real_civil_war_motivations/

as well as Foner's excellent Reconstruction if WEB Dubois' work is too radical for you.


Lincoln was a political actor for the northern bourgeois, he did not care about the slaves except that it was clear the slave economy was moribund and needed to be replaced with capitalist wage labor. However, it was essential that cotton harvesting continue for the American industrial revolution to succeed and when the revolutionary potential of abolishing slavery became clear he became a moderate who opposed abolition until it was forced on him by the reality of confederate resistance and the radical republicans. If you must look for specific political actors who actually cared about the "contradiction" within the constitution Sumner and Stevens are the real heroes, however they basically failed and black enfranchisement died along with reconstruction.

the rest of your post is barely English, I'm losing faith in your ability to read an entire history book.