World history textbooks come from several publishers, but none of them do not have Lincoln's name on them. Not only does it appear in high school world history, but also in junior high school history textbooks, Lincoln's name appears in elementary school textbooks, which are primary education.
Lincoln is the person who released the slaves.
That is the Japanese view of Lincoln, and Lincoln is always treated as a great man without any price.
That's not a mistake in a sense, but is Lincoln really the person that the Japanese have in mind?
This time I would like to take a look around Abraham Lincoln's life.
President of the United States without primary education
Most of the successive presidents of the United States graduated from college, but Lincoln rarely attended school, let alone college.
It is said that the total length of Lincoln's school attendance is less than three months. However, it wasn't that Lincoln had no learning, and he mastered reading and writing with his sister Sarah, or completely by self-education.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, unlike Japan and Germany, it is not always necessary to receive education at a public institution, and if you can study by yourself, it is allowed, but even so, Lincoln, who will produce many famous speeches later, is almost a school. The fact that we haven't been to is worthy of special mention.
Lincoln itself was never born of the poor, but was born into a relatively wealthy family in Kentucky. Lincoln's birthplace ran a farm, but he seems to have opposed slavery, with some arguing that it had a major impact on Lincoln.
In Lincoln's childhood, his father seemed to have been denied ownership due to land troubles, which led him to move to Indiana and Illinois. He was interested in the law because of the different laws in each state and the fact that his father was involved in a court battle over land ownership.
As a young Lincoln, he changed jobs in Illinois, interacted with local leaders, gradually attended debates, and was elected a member of the Illinois Parliament in 1834 as a Whig member.
Retired from politics
While working as a member of the state legislature, Lincoln self-taught to rule the law and obtain a lawyer qualification.
However, at this time he opposes the American-Mexico War (Mexican-American War) and loses the support of his public opinion.
At that time, James Knox Polk's ex-America was intoxicated with victory, and Lincoln was labeled as a non-patriot and was forced to retire from politics.
After his retirement from politics, he opened a law firm in Illinois to increase his reputation as a corporate lawyer.
Slavery situation
In the first half of the 19th century, the United States was in danger of division.
At that time, the United States was in conflict between the north, the south, and the west, and the conflict between the north and the south was intensifying to the point where the end could not be seen.
The axis of the conflict was about trade tariffs, and the northern part, which is centered on industry, wanted protectionist trade, and the southern part, which was centered on cotton production, wanted free trade because it wanted to export cotton.
The North-South conflict, which started with the tariff conflict, gradually shifts to the problem of slavery.
It's really hard to think where the origin of the slavery problem was. From the time Britain insisted on stopping the slave trade, or from the time the Missouri Compromise was issued. In fact, it can be said that this problem had a fire because there was no mention of slaves in the Declaration of Independence.
In the first half of the 19th century, there were few blacks in the north. The population composition was, for example, about 1% in the representative state of New York in the north and 44% in the representative state of Georgia in the south.
From the perspective of the South, the issue of slavery would have been seen as an attack from the North.
By the way, there are many criticisms about slavery in various parts of Europe, and in response to that, a bill banning the slave trade was passed in 1808 in the United States, and slavery was abolished in the Americas as well. There were many places.
Canada:Abolished in 1793 in the north, abolished in 1803 in the south
Argentina:abolished in 1813
Mexico:abolished in 1829
It was an era without the concept of international public opinion, but it must have been true that the era was leaning toward the abolition of slavery.
However, America's will to maintain slavery was strong.
Slavery State United States
Democracy and slavery are closely related in history.
Both ancient Greece and the Roman Republic were premised on slavery. The United States was also initially a society premised on slavery.
In fact, of the 15 US presidents before Lincoln, only two were John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, who had no black slaves.
This is closely related to the fact that many have come from Virginia, the first independent state since the first president, Washington.
Virginia thrives around large plantations, with about 45% of the population being black slaves in the 1850s.
Therefore, the American rulers were all supporters of slavery, including the first president, George Washington.
Dred Scott Incident
Further complicating the matter was the development of the frontier.
The United States, which was differentiated by Britain, seized the land in the war with the Indians. When the land that has been seized becomes a state, whether it is a slave state or a free state is a big issue that affects the United States.
In 1820, when Missouri became a new state, it became a big issue whether it would become a slave state or a free state. As a result, Missouri becomes a slave state, but the states north of the 36th degree line become free states and the southern states become slave states. " Missouri Compromise Will be tied.
Under such circumstances, the "Dred Scott case" was decided in 1857, and the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the contents of the Missouri Compromise were unconstitutional.
In addition, the ruling clarified that "blacks are not US citizens."
The Supreme Court's ruling was a major nationwide affair.
Birth of President Lincoln
In 1854, the "Republican Party" was born in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which would revoke the Missouri Compromise. The policy was the introduction of protective tariffs and the abolition of slavery.
It is clearly a political party that represents the north, and is in direct opposition to the Democratic Party, which is the incarnation of the will of the south.
With the establishment of the Republican Party, the Whigs, which had long been the two major political parties in the United States, will disappear in the form of being absorbed by the Republican Party.
In the intensifying North-South conflict, 15th US President James Buchanan remained do nothing.
Who will be the next president of the United States?
This was an important presidential election to decide the United States.
Will it come from the Democratic Party of the South or the Republican Party of the North?
The result was Lincoln's victory.
The Republican Party was the first to nominated Lincoln, while the Democratic Party nominated Stephen Douglas from the Northern Democratic Party and John Brinkinbridge from the Southern Democratic Party. It can be said that the Democratic Party also disagreed in the north and south, and the fact that it was not a monolith was the biggest factor in the birth of President Lincoln.
In fact, Lincoln didn't get the majority of the votes, and the sum of the two Democrats' votes exceeded Lincoln's votes.
Division of America-The Birth of the Confederate States of America-
In 1860, following the election of Lincoln, South Carolina announced the departure of the United States of America, followed by 10 southern states such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
In 1861, the 10 southern states declared the founding of the Confederate States of America and enacted their own Confederate Constitution, stating that "a law that denies or infringes the ownership of black slaves should never be enacted." Jefferson Davis will be appointed president.
Two presidents were born for the first time since the founding of the United States.
Is Lincoln really a great man?
What was Lincoln's position during this time?
There is an image of abolition of slavery in the image, but for Lincoln, abolition of slavery was not humane but political.
Lincoln had no intention of keeping the released slaves inside the United States.
In 1847, American freedmen founded Liberia in the land of Africa. The capital is Monrovia, named after the president of the United States, Monrovia.
Lincoln intended to relocate all released slaves to Liberia.
Lincoln's aim was to eliminate blacks from the Americas, creating a white, white, white United States.
"We are friends, not enemies. We must not be enemies, even if the passion is tense, we must not break the bond of love between us."
This is a passage from Lincoln's textbook for the Confederate States of America, but Lincoln did not intend to divide the United States.
However, a month later, the Civil War's fire was cut off by an attack in the South.
"All I want is to avoid fragmentation."
In fact, Lincoln did not oppose the survival of slavery in the South. And he didn't want whites and blacks to enjoy equal rights.
In fact, the 1862 Congress set a budget of $ 600,000 to settle blacks in Liberia, with tremendous support in the north and west.
"Emancipation of slaves" was not to equalize whites and blacks as we Japanese imagine, but to eliminate the liberated slaves from the United States.
Civil War
The Civil War, which Lincoln was trying to avoid, actually broke out.
The trigger was the bombardment of Fort Sumter by the South Army, which marked the beginning of the worst war in the history of the United States.
The worst and worst war for us Japanese was probably World War II, which fought the United States unanimously, but the Civil War was far more miserable for the United States.
The number of deaths in the United States was about 400,000 at the time of World War II, while it was about 500,000 in the Civil War, and the number of mobilization was about 3.3 million in the Civil War. The Civil War was far more disastrous in terms of death rate, as there was a huge difference of 16 million in World War II.
By the way, it is said that the number one cause of death was infectious diseases such as measles caused by poor hygiene.
This area was the same as in World War I, but it was a characteristic of the war before World War II that there were more illnesses than direct wars.
The Civil War was a war that involved the entire United States and lasted for four years.
The reason why the Emancipation Proclamation was issued
The Civil War ends with the Union Army's victory, but there is a close relationship between that victory and the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued to cut off foreign support for the South Army.
Originally, the Civil War was a battle over tariffs. However, by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union Army replaced it with a battle for the liberation of slaves.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Britain was supporting the South Army. For Britain, industrial products in the north were competitors and there was another reason to support the South Army.
Britain's colonization of India has greatly increased cotton production. As a result, the cotton industry in the south was actually dying. In other words, from the perspective of Britain, the South was not their enemy.
The Union Army needed to somehow cut it off and prevent other foreign countries from participating in the Civil War.
In fact, Lincoln himself was reluctant to declare the liberation of slaves.
In Lincoln's view, and in the Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott, black slaves were the property of whites, not humans. Therefore, the Emancipation Proclamation was an infringement of private property and a violation of the US Constitution.
There was a debate within the Republican Party here. Whether or not to issue an emancipation proclamation.
It is said that Lincoln reluctantly declared the emancipation proclamation as a result of hardliners such as Charles Sumner and Saduce Stevens approaching Lincoln. Hardliners criticize Lincoln's plan to settle blacks in Africa as inhumane and unrealistic, but the hardliners also use liberated blacks as a military resource rather than humane. It is noteworthy that the argument was that it should be released as a hawk.
In any case, on September 22, 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation was announced to the whole world.
By the way, the content was that slaves would be free if they did not dissolve the Confederation and return to the United States by January 1, 1863, so this is also what we would imagine. to differ greatly.
Lincoln wanted to return the southern states to the United States, not he wanted to release slaves. Rather, if the South returned to the United States here, slavery would have survived.
Furthermore, Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, etc. were excluded from this declaration.
But just as we interpret the "Emancipation Proclamation" today by its sound, the people of the time also interpreted the Union Army as waging a war for the liberation of slaves. International public opinion was completely leaning towards the Union Army.
Battle of Gettysburg
The trend was no longer leaning towards the Union Army. Initially, the South Army had an advantage in the battlefield, but the South Army, which had lost its cause internationally, could not become dominant.
After all, it wasn't the masters of the plantations that owned slaves, but the general humans who had no property that were actually fighting in the South Army. They would no longer even know what they were fighting for.
One Union soldier was full of cause.
The two troops began combat on July 1, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The battle ended in an overwhelming Union victory. It is said that a total of more than 50,000 people died in this battle.
In November of the same year, Lincoln gave a famous speech in the land of Gettysburg.
"To not waste the deaths of the war dead, to bring this country to a new birth of freedom under God, and to never extinguish the politics of the people, by the people, for the people from the earth. , We make a firm determination here. "
Lincoln emphasized here that the "country" won, not the Union Army. In a sense, this speech may have been the birthplace of the United States.
The end of Lincoln
The following year, in 1864, Lincoln ran for president again and was reelected.
And in April 1865, the South Army surrendered. The Civil War is over.
In the post-Civil War post-processing, South Army leaders received little punishment. Except for those who abused prisoners of war during the war, the southern regime remained largely unchanged. As a result, blacks were freed in terms of status, but in the end they had no choice but to work in plantations, and in the end the current situation did not change much.
And just five days after the end of the Civil War, Lincoln was assassinated. The criminal was said to have been a fanatic Southern supporter.
Personal Lincoln Rating
When a great presidential vote is held in the United States, Lincoln will be the top depending on the voting system. Lincoln's reputation is actually higher for historians than for the average person.
Citizens tend to be disappointed when they learn how Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In fact, I was deeply disappointed when I learned about Lincoln in high school. What is the father of slavery liberation! It became.
But what would the history of the world be without Lincoln?
Or slavery may have been around for a long time. The Civil War would have happened without Lincoln. In that case, the United States was still divided into north and south. And it may have remained ununified.
Was there anyone other than Lincoln who could reunite America, which was divided into north and south?
Looking at successive US presidents, it seems unlikely that anyone could do that. I think it would be Kennedy or two Roosevelts, but in a sense it could even be said that those presidents would not have existed without Lincoln.
Without the subsequent development of America, World War I, World War II, or Germany might have won.
Everything is if, but for the United States, the world line without Lincoln is only a tragedy. Or it may be a tragedy not only in the United States but also in the history of the world.
Lincoln, who managed to put the United States back on the growth track after the worst of the Civil War, is still one of the greatest men in the history of the world and the greatest president of America's history.
It should be said that its greatness is more than people are aware of.
It is exactly "the Great Emancipator".