After watching the video with professor Edna Greene Medford’s lecture “Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation,” I learned more about how big of an impact Abraham Lincoln had on freeing the African American slaves in the United States. Edna Greene talks about in 1869, when the South Carolina militia fired at the federal installation in Charleston harbor. Abraham Lincoln delivered the speech to congress making the statements and trying to connect both of the nations. First, Lincoln referred to the Declaration of Independence by the seceded states and Thomas Jefferson had bought up. The Quote was “All men are created equal.” She also states that, Abraham Lincoln views this as a deliberate effort to deny the people for their rights that was already pointed out in the Declaration of Independence and the Confederate thing saying, “We the people.” Abraham also said that it’s essentially a people’s contest. Meaning that he wants to help the people get the right they deserve and he doesn’t want anyone to feel like they’re being treated unfairly. He is mostly talking about elevate the condition of men in the nation. Abraham Lincoln found it really weird how some people would say that they have the rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness but they would only claim it for themselves. Those people doesn’t want other people to have the same rights as them. Lincoln advocated for rights of the African Americans and said that selling them was unfair because he believed that according to the Declaration of independence people should be free with rights. Even most of the states agreed to this, some of the states in the south didn’t even send their advocate for the first ever congress meeting. Also, some of those states kept on having slaves and kept on violating what the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution said about the freedom of people.
In my perspective I think President Lincoln did a great job of advocating for the African Americans. He made sure these people get their right because everybody is important to this nation. I think that everybody is important for this nation. Everybody means the diversity that we all have in this nation. There are different types of people in this nation and everybody is helping it someway or somehow. Everyone is doing a job that is boosting the economy and helping this nation grow each and every day. Back then those African Americans helped shaped America because they worked hard on the plantations but when it was time they also fought and stood up for their rights. Adapting to the environment is everything. They have suffered tough times in my opinion. From my history class I’ve learned that, slaves would get married but their wife have to be from a different plantation. What would you do if you were away from your family and kids the whole week and only get to see them once a week? That is how immigrants are here nowadays. They leave their wife and kids behind in their country to come to the United States or any other country to make money to feed their family. We saw this in the book “Drown” by Junot Diaz, where the father of the main character came to the United States to earn money. Junior’s father was struggling to bring his family to the United States from the Dominican Republic. This is why I say that the immigrants helped this nation become the nation it is today.
