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Abolition...

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Oh brain, brains.... [Zombie lincoln appears]

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Excuse me I got a frog in my throat there much better what I was

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trying to say is that you'll need your brains to master this lesson on

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abolition in the United States although slavery was already a major institution

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in America when the country was founded a serious discussion of the topic is

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strangely missing from both the Constitution and from the Bill of Rights [Bill of rights and constitution documents appear]

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this country's founding legal set of documents four million slaves lived in

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the US back then so the issue of slavery was hotly debated at the

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Constitutional Convention of 1787 the big meeting where America's founding [Founding fathers meeting at a convention]

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fathers wrote the US Constitution which essentially established the US of A... word

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on the street is that they hosted a killer dance party - but sadly no photo [founding fathers dancing at a rave]

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evidence exists, though I'm strangely confident that Ben Franklin was their

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next level twerker... Most of America's slaves were in the southern half of the

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country which meant that the debate split on regional lines with southern

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leaders eager to keep their profit margin sky-high by paying their workers

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nothing arguing in favor of slavery and northerners being a little less gung-ho

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which makes sense given that their economy was far less reliant on the

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system of slavery not all northerners were staunch abolitionists however [Abolition definition appears]

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abolitionists are people who want to end a specific practice in this case of

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slavery some northern leaders were totally cool keeping slavery up and

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running after all many northern businesses were reliant on cotton

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imports from the south to survive and many Northerners themselves held racist

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beliefs and saw nothing wrong with slavery in the South either way it sure

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seems like a lot of folks were willing to turn a blind eye to injustice before [Lincoln pulls out a 5 dollar bill]

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a price... welcome to America... Other northerners argued that the south could

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keep their slaves as long as they stopped taking part in the slave trade [Southerners punishing a slave on a ship]

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from Africa to America something that Europe had done a long time ago already

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along with the banning of slavery altogether which hurt the continents

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ability to produce cheap cotton conveniently leaving an opening for

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southern slave produced cotton to fill still other northerners demanded nothing

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less than full emancipation or freedom for all the slaves as the existence of

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this lesson shows efforts to limit this horrendous institution

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ultimately failed and slavery remained the law of the land from us 80 more years

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the few agreements reached between the two sides weren't too beneficial to [Congress agreement newspaper article appears]

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their cause either the delegates agreed that Congress would have the power to

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end the slave trade from Africa to America but not for another 20 years in

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which is kind of like saying to someone

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I'll stop punching you in a few hours Congress ended up banning the slave [Uncle Sam punches a slave in the face]

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trade as soon as those 20 years had passed so this had zero impact on the

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enslaved people who were already in America all it did was prevent new folks

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from being brought in they also made an agreement known as the

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three-fifths compromise which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for

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population purposes which gave the south a greater amount of political power in

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Congress where the number of Representatives for a given state is

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proportional to their population fast forward to 1861 a little tiff known

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as the Civil War had broken out from the north known as the Union the direct [Union states highlighted blue]

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continuation of the federal US government and the south which was now

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known as the Confederacy before the Civil War people in the north and the

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south wanted different things they were like a couple on the verge of

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breaking up the South wanted to stick with the plantation economy that had [Family on a plantation]

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done so well for them so far no matter how much blood had to be spilled to pad

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their pockets with dollar bills while the north saw industrialization

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factories galore as a wave of the future the South wanted to have control over

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its own political structure while the North preferred a stronger federal

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government and most importantly the South justified slavery by spouting

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racist beliefs about the african-americans they had enslaved

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while an increasing number of northerners were realizing that hey

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owning another human being just might not be such a cool move..Well, the result

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like a teenager grounded on prom night the south rebelled now don't think that [teenage boy dressed in prom suit grounded]

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the north fought the civil war just to free the slaves some northerners argued

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that slavery simply needed to be contained in the south rather than

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spread to new territories while others were ambivalent or in some cases

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supportive of slavery.. for example I was passionately opposed to slavery in my [Zombie Lincoln holds up abolish slavery sign]

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personal life but felt that as president I should remain neutral on the matter

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and accept the South's demands to keep their slaves. what's more my only

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stated goal in civil war was to preserve the Union the United States as a country

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not to free the slaves a distinction that becomes quite important when we

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look at the Emancipation Proclamation signed on September 22 1862 the

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Emancipation Proclamation is one of the most important American political

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documents ever...This executive order basically a direct order issued by the

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president proclaims that any southern state that doesn't make peace with the [People discussing Emancipation Proclamation]

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Union by New Year's Day 1863 will have all their slaves freed immediately...

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well the proclamation doesn't say anything either

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way about enslaved people living in the north or in other American territories

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in the Midwest which had not yet fallen under state control and in some cases

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permitted slavery well there's tons of debate over my exact intentions with the [Zombie Lincoln holding a tin of black beans]

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order but don't expect the association's now no spoilers here well

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some reference my personal anti-slavery views to argue that I intended to end

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the grave evil of slavery once and for all

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while others say that I freed the slaves only to hurt the south's economy

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thereby aiding the war effort and giving the Union Army a fresh set of recruits [Union soldiers holding rifles]

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to throw into boot camp supporters of the latter opinion certainly have the

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citations to back up their belief after all the proclamation explicitly states

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that freeing the slaves was a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing

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the rebellion which definitely implies that the main purpose here was to aid

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the war effort....[mumbles]

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Aso I sent a letter to the New York Tribune editor Horace

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Greeley just a month before signing the Emancipation Proclamation that famously

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states if I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it and If I

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could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it and if I could save it by

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freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that well in other words

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I'm claiming that I'm a real tough guy who only cares about winning the war [People in mid-battle]

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basically the freedom-loving terminator of the 1800s [Lincoln zombie places sunglasses on face]

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if freeing the slaves helped me beat the Confederacy then fine but if not then

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you know whatevs don't think this case is open and shut [Judge bangs a gavel]

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as we've already discussed I was personally opposed to slavery which

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makes it a bit silly to suggest that my personal beliefs didn't influence my

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actions by the time I wrote that letter to Greeley I had already drafted the

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Emancipation Proclamation making the letter seem a lot less like a president

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spitballing the potential impact of ending slavery and a lot more like a PR [Lincoln writing in a room]

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move meant to defend the emancipation proclamation from northerners who still

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didn't want to see slavery ended well another key thing to remember about the

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Emancipation Proclamation is that it only applied to slaves in states that

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were currently in rebellion against the federal government the Confederacy not

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to those states in the so-called border area or border state which still allowed [Border states appear highlighted]

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slavery like Maryland, Delaware and Kentucky nor those on the Western Front

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in other words if a confederacy got

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together in their group chat that day and decided to end the Civil War [Person checks cell phone and confederacy group asks if they should quit]

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well they'd still be allowed to enslave poor innocent people to their heart's

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content of course I didn't expect the south to tap out just because I issued [Emancipation Proclamation knocks out a man]

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the Emancipation Proclamation I just wanted to re-emphasize that my

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decision to free the slaves was solely a military one tactic that would both

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devastate the southern economy and slow down their military buildup and further

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fill out the ranks of the Union Army while slavery didn't really end legally

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anyway until the passage of the 13th amendment to the Constitution late 1864

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early 65 in 1864 civil war was nearing its end so the big talk in DC was what [People fighting in a civil war battle]

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to finally do about this whole slavery situation...Well the

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amendment passed the Senate in April 1864 made it through the House of Congress

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in January 65 and was tattooed on my back in February and then slowly [Lincoln having amendment tattooed on back]

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implemented on a state level over the rest of that year well the actual

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amendment itself is rather short just two sentences don't think this brevity

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means the little fella is easy to grasp however look carefully the amendment

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doesn't ban slavery full stop people can still be placed in slavery or

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involuntary servitude if they've committed a crime....

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Not the biggest distinction in the world but it's one that many commentators have

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pointed out over the years regardless though the Thirteenth Amendment ended [Equality enters into a machine]

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slavery it didn't end the racist system that continued to hold African Americans

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back the laws that kept them segregated the racist beliefs of their lighter

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complexioned countrymen and in many cases horrendous violence directed

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toward them for no other reason than their skin color after all the civil [Clock ticks forward]

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rights movement which was all about racism against African Americans

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wouldn't occur for nearly a hundred years....

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So keep in mind just because the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery [African American girl cycling in a street]

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doesn't mean that it made everything hunky-dory overnight and many argue that

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there's still plenty to go before true equality will be reached, well speaking of..

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let's go back in time a few years and look at another one of my most famous [Zombie Lincoln talking and person draws curtain down]

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speeches the Gettysburg Address well delivered on November 19th 1863 the

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speech was given at the dedication of the soldiers National Cemetery in

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Gettysburg Pennsylvania where the Union would fight and win the crucial Battle [People in battle of Gettysburg]

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of Gettysburg just four months later my speech at Gettysburg is short and sweet

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under two hundred seventy five words and lasting only about two minutes okay sure

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most Joe schmo's might be more familiar with that time when Kanye West messed up [Kanye West on stage with Taylor Swift]

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Taylor Swift acceptance speech but mine was a pretty big deal too but the

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opening line is iconic... Four score and seven years ago... alright let's do some

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math. A score technically speaking is a period of 20 years so we've got four

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times 20 that's 80 plus 7 which is 87 sheesh, don't expect so much arithmetic

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well the speech was given in 1863 so 1863 minus

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87 is 1776 the year that the Declaration of Independence was signed and America [Founding fathers signing declaration of independence]

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was born as a nation 50.. I then defined America as I understand it the nation

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was conceived in Liberty dedicated to the proposition that all men are created

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equal and secretly supported by a super advanced race of aliens keep it on the [Lincoln stood with a group of aliens]

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low so basically I'm connecting the founding of America to the Civil War and

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implying that I'm on the right side of American history in my view of history

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then the Civil War is a test to determine whether any nation built on [Nation test paper appears]

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these freedom-loving values can long endure if the South wins then the dream is

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over but if the North wins and well America is alive and kick'n let's take a

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second to think about the audience of the Gettysburg Address because the

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speech was given during the consecration of a military cemetery its immediate [Lincoln stood in an empty field]

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audience was the soldiers gathered there that day and any of our inter-galactic

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friends you know who decided to drop in take a listen all right but there's also [Person reading Gettysburg Address in newspaper]

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the wider audience of the American public who would later read my words in

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newspapers and they had those back then they hopefully see them as a valid

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defense of the Civil War and don't get it twisted I might say that the world

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won't long remember my speech but you can be darn certain I knew my words

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would spread and be read throughout America but when talking to this wider

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audience I assume they have the same vision of America as I do, that it's a [Vision of a word test appears]

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land of freedom and liberty, that it was founded under the idea that all men are

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created equal and that our love for it can be best expressed through a killer [Lincoln playing a guitar]

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guitar solo as it happened this idea that all men are created equal is at the

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center of the Civil War because it's kind of hard to be equal to someone when

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you're owned by them once again I'm saying these things not

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just to honor the men and women who died during the Civil War but to ensure that [Person sat by a grave of civil war soldiers memorial site]

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the north not the south is seen as the standard-bearer of American values and

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ideals so we can say that the Gettysburg Address had two purposes on one level the

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speech was simply meant to honor the soldiers who died not just at Gettysburg

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but throughout Civil War but it was also meant to portray the Union as the good

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guys in the Civil War by associating them with American ideals and making

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them seem like total studs for good measure well the third paragraph of the [Third paragraph of speech appears]

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speech begins with a nice bit repetition we cannot dedicate, we cannot

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consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground repetition is a classic literary device

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which gives a speech a rhythmic feel to emphasize its message in this case I'm

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employing anaphora which is the repetition of the first part of a given

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phrase or sentence which in this case the, we cannot part and my message

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that the work carried forward by the fallen Union soldiers is still [Wounded union soldiers appear]

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unfinished these soldiers are running that same marathon that was begun when

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the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence and signed the Constitution

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sprinting towards the goal of true freedom and equality for all because [Founding fathers sprinting for freedom and equality on a track]

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this work is unfinished it's up to us to complete the mission to give America a

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new birth of freedom and to ensure that government of the people by the people

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and for the people shall not perish from the earth

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in this way I'm once again connecting the union's efforts in the civil war to

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those of the founding fathers during the Revolutionary War and arguing that [Woman walking up steps]

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winning the Civil War will help move their mission of freedom that much

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closer to completion but my quest for true freedom might

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never be finished this lesson sure is and what did we learn well we learned

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that America's founding fathers really passed the buck where slavery is [Checklist of why should we care]

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concerned forcing later generations to deal with the issue themselves and

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nobody did more to end slavery than yours truly Honest Abe, the Emancipation

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Proclamation for example is a legendary legal document that freed all slaves in

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the Confederacy though not throughout the Union the Thirteenth Amendment

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finished the job a few years later banning slavery throughout the country

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though some modern commentators argue that its exception when someone commits

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a crime allows slavery to continue to the modern day and while my famous [TV screen showing Gettysburg Address]

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speech the Gettysburg Address might not directly be about slavery the speech is

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all about my personal vision of America as a land of freedom and equality one I

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hope you share too now please leave me be as you can probably hear the founding

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fathers are throwing an undead rager and well you do not want to miss out on one [Lincoln appears at a club with founding fathers]

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of those I told you the greatest twerker of all time [Franklin twerking in a club]

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