Lincoln: the Great Emancipator

Until it was abolished in 1865, slavery thrived in the United States since the nation’s beginnings in the colony of Jamestown in 1607. In 1776, the founding fathers stated that “all men are created equal” when they declared independence and started a war that freed the 13 colonies from the oppressive rule of Great Britain. However, after “the land of the free” had been established, slavery had yet to be eliminated. After the war of 1812, sectionalism began to grow prevalent in America. The Industrial Revolution in the early to mid-1800s advanced the country technologically while further dividing it as the North became industrialized and the South became more agrarian and reliant on slave labor. Sectionalism was increased by westward expansion, and began to manifest itself in American politics. The country could have gone to war by the early 1800s, but various political compromises held the two sections together for another half of a century. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 are two important examples. Tensions built over the 40 years of compromise. Abolitionists worked to gain support in the North while they caused outrage in the South. In the government, everything had to be compromised and everything was a competition, such as legislature and westward expansion. Fortunately, when sectionalism and tensions around slavery boiled over, Abraham Lincoln came to the forefront of US politics. He created a reputation for himself and the Republican Party with a political platform against the expansion of slavery. He became known in the South as an abolitionist through the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and his election in 1860 sparked the secession of 11 southern states from the Union and the beginning of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was the most important contributor to ending slavery in America because of his actions toward winning the Civil War and emancipating the slaves, and he was able to do this because he was an extraordinary politician who

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