Lincoln and the Abolitionists by Fred Kaplan

By Nate Feldman

In honor of President's Day, I took out the book "Lincoln and the Abolitionists: John Quincy Adams, Slavery, and the Civil War" by Fred Kaplan from a local library.

One theme of the book is comparing two United States' Presidents, John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln and their approaches to dealing with slavery and their attitudes about African Americans as a whole.  The book argues that while both Adams and Lincoln abhorred slavery, Adams believed much more in a multi-racial America where blacks and whites could live side-by-side with one another.  He also sought an immediate end to slavery.  Lincoln, on the other hand, is portrayed as believing black people needed to move out of the United States once freed and was reluctant to end slavery immediately, hoping it would gradually go away.

I would be interested to read more about the sources the author uses in the research to make these claims.  So far, I find the book an interesting read on the history of race relations in the United States.