Course Description

Instructor: Joe Simpson

Human slavery existed in Colonial America and the United States for 246 years from 1619 to 1865 and it defined Abraham Lincoln's life and his historical legacy.  Lincoln reentered politics in 1854 to oppose the future expansion of slavery.  Eleven years later in 1865, President Lincoln presided over passage of the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery in the United States.  This course will examine in detail:  Abraham Lincoln’s essential characteristics, campaign to prohibit the growth of slavery, racial views, improbable political rise to power, and Presidential leadership. We will hear Lincoln’s masterful words and study his important actions between 1854 and 1865 to preserve the United States and to abolish slavery. What is the Lincoln Factor in the course of American history?