Gates & Stauffer On Lincoln

An article by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and John Stauffer asks the question "what would the man who is remembered for freeing the slaves say about his first black successor?" Noting that is difficult to answer that question, Gates and Stauffer contend that "Lincoln would have been, um, surprised. Lincoln was thoroughly a man of his times, and while he staunchly opposed slavery--on moral grounds and because it made competition in the marketplace unfair for poor white men--for most of his life he harbored fixed and unfortunate ideas about race." Lincoln favored abolition but not equality and had "ambivalent feelings about blacks themselves, especially about whether they were, or could ever be, truly equal with whites." According to the authors, in the month prior to emancipation becoming law Lincoln "proposed a constitutional amendment guaranteeing financing for blacks who wished to emigrate to Liberia or Haiti." Lincoln also used the words "Sambo," "Cuffee," and "nigger," told "darkie" jokes, and enjoyed minstrels in black face. Lincoln met with more black leaders than any preceding president and "became quite taken with one black man, Frederick Douglass," who, like Barack Obama, had one black and one white parent and was one of the greatest writers and speakers of his generation. "Lincoln, seeing this masterly orator of mixed-race ancestry [Obama], would most likely first have been reminded of his exceptional friend, Douglass."