Lincoln ran for president in 1860, sweeping the North of America to gain victory. Pro-slavery elements in the Southern states viewed his election as a threat to slavery, and Southern states began seceding from the US Union. The US Civil War broke out in 1861 and Lincoln mobilized forces to suppress the rebellion and restore the union.
In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the slaves in the states “in rebellion” to be free. It also directed the Army and Navy to “recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons” and to receive them “into the armed service of the United States.” Lincoln also pressured border states to outlaw slavery, and he promoted the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which upon its ratification abolished slavery.
Lincoln managed his own successful re-election campaign in 1865. He sought to heal the war-torn nation through reconciliation. On April 14, just five days after the war’s end at Appomattox, he was attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Mary, when he was fatally shot by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.
Lincoln’s death was mourned by many abolitionists in Belfast who had campaigned long and hard to end slavery in the US.
To find out more about this publication and the anti-slavery movement in Belfast, book the ANTI SLAVERY BELFAST TOUR!