Paul Finkelman

Lincoln and Emancipation
Who Emancipated the Slaves?

The issue has been debated by scholars and activists. Was Lincoln the “Great Emancipator” or was he “forced into Glory” as one activist journalist put it? Was the Emancipation Proclamation the ultimate statement of a man who said “If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong”

Or, was it the desperate act of a commander-in-chief who was losing a war? Was the Emancipation Proclamation a glorious statement of freedom, or, as the historian Richard Hofstader put it, did it have “all the moral grandeur of a bill of lading” Our February speaker, Paul Finkelman, a Ph.D. historian and law professor will explore the complexity of emancipation and why the Emancipation Proclamation was written as it was, and why it was issued when it was. On the eve of the 201st anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday, we will try to better understand what America’s greatest president was doing on January 1, 1863.