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And envisioning blacks as soldiers is a very, very different idea of their future role in American society. And by the end of the Civil War, 200,000 black men had served in the Union Army and Navy. 'And the Army opened itself up to the enlistment of black men. We're not going to send them back into the slave-holding regions,'' Foner says. 'Almost from the very beginning of the Civil War, the federal government had to start making policy and they said, 'Well, we're going to treat these people as free. 'And this forced the question of slavery onto the national agenda.' 'As soon as the Union Army went into the South, slaves began running away from plantations to Union lines,' Foner says. It was not until the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the freedom of all slaves and then named 10 specific states where the law would take affect, that Lincoln publicly rejected his earlier views. Like Henry Clay, Lincoln also supported repealing slavery gradually - and possibly compensating slave owners for their losses after slaves were freed. And this was not an unusual position at this time.'ДЇoner traces how Lincoln first supported this kind of colonization - the idea that slaves should be freed and then encouraged or required to leave the United States - for well over a decade. They are kind of an alien group who have been uprooted from their own society and unjustly brought across the ocean. At this point, Lincoln does not really see black people as an intrinsic part of American society. He's not an abolitionist who criticizes Southerners.

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Slavery ought to be abolished - but he doesn't really know how to do it. ' really epitomizes his views into the Civil War. 'Lincoln is thinking through his own position on slavery,' says Foner. In the Peoria speech, Lincoln said that slavery was wrong, Foner says, and then admitted that he didn't know what should be done about it, even contemplating 'free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia - to their own native land.' He explains how Lincoln's changing thoughts about slavery - and the role of freed slaves - mirrored America's own transformation. 'The problem arises with the next question: What do you do with slavery, given that it's unjust? Lincoln took a very long time to try to figure out exactly what steps ought to be taken.'ДЇoner traces the evolution of Lincoln's thoughts on slavery in The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.

He said he couldn't remember when he didn't think that way - and there's no reason to doubt the accuracy or sincerity of that statement,' explains historian Eric Foner. 'Lincoln said during the Civil War that he had always seen slavery as unjust. In it, Lincoln aired his grievances over Douglas' bill and outlined his moral, economic, political and legal arguments against slavery.Д«ut like many Americans, Lincoln was unsure what to do once slavery ended. The longest of those speeches - known as the Peoria Speech - took three hours to deliver.

He scheduled three public speeches in the fall of 1854, in response. The bill, which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, also opened up a good portion of the Midwest to the possible expansion of slavery.Дouglas' political rival, former Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln, was enraged by the bill.

Stephen Douglas forced the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

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