%1

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation

Allen Guelzo’s book leads us into contested territory. For more than a generation after the Civil War, Francis B. Carpenter’s painting “The Emancipation Proclamation,” portraying Lincoln as the great emancipator, occupied an honored place in many American—including African American—homes. The terrain began to shift during the 1960s civil rights era, as questions and criticisms emerged about Lincoln and slavery.