{"id":2199,"date":"2016-03-28T17:28:05","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T17:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=2199"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:56:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:56:47","slug":"crofts-63-sheds-bright-clarifying-light-on-lincoln","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2016\/03\/28\/crofts-63-sheds-bright-clarifying-light-on-lincoln\/","title":{"rendered":"Crofts \u201963 Sheds “Bright, Clarifying Light” on Lincoln as Emancipator"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0landmark book\u00a0Kirkus Reviews<\/em> calls “a thorough look at the dissension that tore the country apart,”\u00a0Daniel Crofts’ Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery<\/a><\/em> examines a little-known episode in the most celebrated aspect of Abraham Lincoln\u2019s life: his role as the \u201cGreat Emancipator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here’s the review:<\/p>\n

Crofts complicates the image of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator in this meticulously detailed history of American politics in the years leading up to the Civil War. He argues in particular against hagiographic portrayals in Steven Spielberg\u2019s movie Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin\u2019s Team of Rivals, and Civil War histories by a host of other scholars.<\/em><\/p>\n

The responsible historian, Crofts writes, \u201cshould try to stand apart from both sides in the secession crisis tangle and explain how each misunderstood the other.\u201d He does note several scholars who take this dispassionate view, making his own contribution a reprisal and augmentation rather than a groundbreaking discovery. Crofts underscores two questions that were central to the contention between North and South, Republican and Democrat: did the Constitution protect states\u2019 right to hold slaves, without interference from the federal government? Could the federal government prohibit slavery in newly acquired territories? As the author recounts the positions of a large cast of participants, he notes repeatedly that many Republicans insisted on barring slaves from territories and opposed admitting new slave states but held \u201cthat slavery could never be touched by the federal government.\u201d Lincoln reassured the South on that point. In the months after his election, Crofts writes, \u201cthe last thing on his mind was the long-run future of slavery in the United States or the many indignities and hardships suffered by American slaves.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Central to the author\u2019s argument is Lincoln\u2019s prewar 13th Amendment, \u201ca constitutional guarantee that slavery should not be molested in any way directly or indirectly in the States.\u201d Four years later, after his hopes of preventing secession failed, Lincoln saw the real 13th Amendment passed, ending slavery and elevating his reputation.<\/em><\/p>\n

A thorough look at the dissension that tore the country apart.<\/em><\/p>\n

Williams College Professor Charles Dew writes, \u201cDaniel Crofts has shined a bright, clarifying light on the story of the original Thirteenth Amendment, and we are indebted to him for bringing it into the light of day. This book is clearly the work of a superb historian, indeed one of the best Civil War historians writing today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crofts is Professor of History at The College of New Jersey and a frequent contributor to The New York Times<\/em> series on The Civil War.<\/p>\n

Read about\u00a0his travels in China in pursuit of a family legacy in “Forever Keep True,”<\/a>\u00a0Wabash Magazine,<\/em> Spring 2011<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0landmark book\u00a0Kirkus Reviews calls “a thorough look at the dissension that tore the country apart,”\u00a0Daniel Crofts’ Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery examines a little-known episode in the most celebrated aspect of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-notes"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/03\/crofts63_dan_yarns-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2199"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2204,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199\/revisions\/2204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}