What is needed is not another book that says that Lincoln had a 19th Century racist view of Blacks but a book that puts his views in context.
Agreed. Lincoln said publicly that he didn't believe blacks were the intellectual or moral equals to whites. What he DID believe was that slavery was a blight on the face of humanity-on this he was consistent. That he was a bigot is no real surprise. So were other prominent northern citizens such as William Tecumseh Sherrman and half of Lincoln's cabinet. Almost all of the impetus for abolition came from New England
Above all else, Lincoln was a pragmatic politician and a product of his time and place. He stated publicly that he would free none, some, or all of the slaves if it would preserve the Union. When he decided on the EP it was more about practical politics than any egalitarian views. Having concluded that there was no way to bring the south back into the union short of prosecuting the war to a successful conclusion, there was no longer any reason to mollify the South.
On the other hand, there were enormous political benefits to emancipation. We have to remember that one of the goals of the Confederacy was British and French intervention ala the AR, and in fact there was a real possibility of such intervention. With the EP, Lincoln put British public opinion squarely into the Union camp. It is unclear exactly where the Palmerston government stood on recognizing the CSA, but clearly British public opinion played a large role.
In short, Lincoln had everything to gain, and nothing to lose politically by emancipating the slaves.
Lincoln was a smart enough politico to know that he had an enormous practical problem with peace and emancipation. How do you integrate the millions of blacks into a society with equality? We're still struggling with that question even today. It should be no surprise that Lincoln would attempt to take the easy way out by repatriating black Americans to their ancestral homeland. Out of sight, out of mind if you will.
As noted earlier, none of this is new.
