Thursday 11/4: Lincoln, Race and Slavery

Zoom link for tonight's 6pm class can be found here. If you are prompted for a passcode, it is 105838.

Zoom recording of the class can be found here.

Read/watch for class, in this order:

1. • Henry Louis Gates, “Abraham Lincoln on Race and Slavery.” See below. This is an optional reading -- it covers some of the same ground that the film does.

   • Film: Looking for Lincoln Parts One and Two, below

   • Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Springfield (1857). On the 1857 US Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. See below

   • Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley (1862). See below.

   • Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863). See below.

   • Abraham Lincoln, interview with Randall and Mills (1864). See below.

   • Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address (1865). In the same file with the Gettysburg Address, below.

Prepare/organize for class:

How did Lincoln’s views on slavery, race and the war change over time (and why)? Did this week’s readings and film change your views of Lincoln? How/why?

What does Lincoln argue in the Gettysburg Address, and why does he argue it? It’s often regarded as one of the greatest speeches in US history -- and compared to Pericles’ “Funeral Oration.” Why?

Lincoln gives his 2^nd inaugural address as the war is coming to an end. How does he explain the causes and meaning of the war to his fellow citizens in the speech? Why does he explain it this way?

The "Abraham Lincoln on Race and Slavery" article below is optional.