LAD #20

After the battle of Antietam Lincoln issued his famous Emancipation Proclamation.  In this speech Lincoln freed all slaves in Confederate States.  He said that they would be protected by the Union army and if they wished they could serve in the army as well.  However slaves were not freed in slave states that were fighting for the Union because they were not under martial law and Lincoln did not have that authority, and he also did not want to lose the support of those states.

LAD #19

In Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address he addressed the issues of the Civil War.  He stated that while neither side wanted to go to war it became the only option in preserving peace.  He acknowledged that slavery was the main cause of the war, and that the South wished to spread it and the North wished to abolish it.  He also vows that the Union will not stop fighting until the country is reunited and sectionalism is ended.

LAD #18

The Dred Scott v. Sanford court case was monumental in deciding issues surrounding slavery. In February 1857 the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, reviewed whether the black slave Dred Scott was a free citizen or still property of his owner. He had crossed into a free-state with his owner and believed that this meant he was no longer a slave to his master. Taney decided that Dred Scott was not allowed to even bring this to court because he was not a citizen, but instead "property" of his owner. This decision meant that all slaves were considered property, regardless of what individual states viewed them as, and they can not be represented in a court. Taney also declared that Congress does not have the right to abolish slavery within the states. He concluded his decision by saying that slaves could not be taken from their owners without due process.

LAD #17

Despite not gaining the right to vote until the 1900s, there was a good amount of women's right movements in the mid-1800s.  It was also most famously a time of much conflict over the issue of slavery.  In 1851 Sojourner Truth delivered a speech about women's rights and the respect of men towards women, especially slaves.  In her speech Truth says that society is inhumane, especially towards women and slaves.  She says that while white men generally try to treat women with respect they barely even recognize slave women as people, let alone women.  She says that the reasons men use to justify their superiority are false and that they should be treated as equals.  She says religion is something both blacks and whites, males and females, have in common and they shouldn't be treated differently for those reasons.  She concludes by saying that white men need to reevaluate their reasoning for discriminating against both blacks and women.

LAD #16

The mid-1800s were a volatile and crucial time period in American History.  At the center of the conflict was the issue of slavery.  One of the leading abolitionist was Frederick Douglas, who was a runaway slave. On Independence Day in 1852 Douglas issued a speech questioning the importance of the Declaration of Independence as it does not apply to blacks.  He says he wishes he knew why it did not apply to those of his race, but says he does not have an answer.  He also says that his freedom does not do as much for him as one might think because he is still burdened by the fact that many are still enslaved.  He also says that they need to remember those who could not gain their freedom.  Douglas then says that the nation is in great upheaval and that it has never been darker.

He continues by saying that all the reasons for slavery are shameful to America.  He says that blacks are equal to whites and they are capable and have held the same jobs as them and believe in God as well.  He describes several other cruelties of slavery and leads up to his key question of what is the Fourth of July to a slave?
He says that for a slave it is a mockery and a reminder of the injustices and deprivations of freedoms.  Douglas concludes his speech by saying that slavery makes America one of the most Hypocritical nations in the world.

LAD #15

The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the deadliest battles in American history. After the battle Lincoln delivered his famous speech, the Gettysburg Address on the location.

To begin the speech Abe Lincoln reminds the crowd that not long ago our founding fathers developed a new nation based on liberty and freedom. He then states that the Civil War is a test to see if this nation can endure a war or not. Lincoln then says that he is dedicating a piece of the Gettysburg battlefield to act as a graveyard for those men who fought to preserve that nation. He then says that the men who fought and died on this field have made it sacred, and that we can do nothing to make it more or less so. Lincoln closes the short speech by saying that the men who died will not have died in vain. That they died for a "nation, under God, (that) shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

LAD #14

Lincoln's First Inaugural Address

Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address was an essential speech in the sense that it would set the tone of Lincoln’s presidency in the years to follow. He begins his speech by reassuring the South that they need not to worry because he has no intentions of abolishing slavery in places where it has already existed. Lincoln’s main objective in the address was establishing his goal, preservation of the Union. Lincoln thought the secession was un-American and unconstitutional. Lincoln knew that the Constitution was unclear on some issues like slavery and secession but stated that how these things would be solved would determine the fate of the Union. Lincoln concludes the address by stressing the fact that the states of the nation should be friends , not enemies, so that unity and nationality could be restored to our great land.