Nance Legins-Costley of Illinois: First Black person freed by Lincoln
Poignant story any way you look at it. Quite entertaining, too. Nance Legins-Costley was one remarkable person.
Among so many other things, if the story is as true as it seems to be, then historians can now pin down the events in 1841 that transformed Lincoln from someone who was more or less intuitively opposed to slavery, into someone who had reasoned himself into becoming a committed opponent of it. About all that remained after that, was for Lincoln to be given/create the opportunity to do more than just talk.
In this context, you might want to try seeing the word 'opportunity' through Lincoln's eyes. The man never left to chance anything he wasn't forced to leave to chance. Whenever possible, he refused to act, no matter how intensely he was pressured, until he had given himself every advantage he could think of to succeed.
I have not once read of even a single moment in Lincoln's life when he did something uncalculated in pursuit of his goals. In my opinion, Lincoln and FDR are the only American presidents in the race to beat out Sun-Tzu and Clausewitz as strategic thinkers.
September 22, 1862, well after the Civil War had begun, Lincoln kicked off his attack on slavery. He was still maneuvering to strike for more damage when he was assassinated about three years later.
For the record, until now no one really knew how, when, and why Lincoln was transformed. There were only several weakly supported guesses.
Poignant story any way you look at it. Quite entertaining, too. Nance Legins-Costley was one remarkable person.
Among so many other things, if the story is as true as it seems to be, then historians can now pin down the events in 1841 that transformed Lincoln from someone who was more or less intuitively opposed to slavery, into someone who had reasoned himself into becoming a committed opponent of it. About all that remained after that, was for Lincoln to be given/create the opportunity to do more than just talk.
In this context, you might want to try seeing the word 'opportunity' through Lincoln's eyes. The man never left to chance anything he wasn't forced to leave to chance. Whenever possible, he refused to act, no matter how intensely he was pressured, until he had given himself every advantage he could think of to succeed.
I have not once read of even a single moment in Lincoln's life when he did something uncalculated in pursuit of his goals. In my opinion, Lincoln and FDR are the only American presidents in the race to beat out Sun-Tzu and Clausewitz as strategic thinkers.
September 22, 1862, well after the Civil War had begun, Lincoln kicked off his attack on slavery. He was still maneuvering to strike for more damage when he was assassinated about three years later.
For the record, until now no one really knew how, when, and why Lincoln was transformed. There were only several weakly supported guesses.