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The Fight for Emancipation: The Road to Civil War

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    John Tyler, 1859

    George Peter Alexander Healy (1813-1894)

    Oil on Canvas

    Presidential portraiture is often highly symbolic, featuring references to important moments and achievements in the sitter’s administration. In this portrait of President John Tyler by George Peter Alexander Healy, a stack of papers sits on the table at the right of the frame; one reads “Texas.” In the decades leading up to the Civil War, pro-slavery presidents allowed the expansion of slavery into new territories; in Tyler’s case, this is reflected in his support of a Congressional resolution to annex Texas as a slave state in 1845. Throughout the antebellum era, the question of balance between slave and free states sometimes resulted in violence, and the annexation further expanded the institution of slavery in America.

    White House Collection/White House Historical Association

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    Lincoln Campaign Button, ca. 1860

    Unknown

    In 1860, the issue of slavery dominated the presidential campaign. Four candidates fought for the White House: Republican Abraham Lincoln, Democrat Stephen Douglas, Southern Democrat John C. Breckenridge, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. This campaign button in the White House Collection features Lincoln and the inscription “Abraham Lincoln, Free Soil & Free Men.” The mantra had previously been used by the Free Soil Party—a party opposed to the spread of slavery across the American West—showing that Lincoln shared this view. The Free Soil Party was short lived, but some party members went on to found the Republican Party.

    White House Collection/White House Historical Association

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    Cannonading on the Potomac, October, 1861, ca. 1868-1870

    Alfred Wordsworth Thompson (1840-1896)

    Oil on Canvas

    Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency in November 1860 was viewed as a threat to slavery, and in response, several southern states seceded from the Union, beginning with South Carolina in December. As Lincoln himself predicted, “A house divided against itself cannot stand;” instead, the nation found itself on the brink of war. On April 12, 1861, the first conflict of the Civil War unfolded at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The war continued for the next four years. Photographers and artists like Alfred Wordsworth Thompson captured scenes from the battlefields, including this depiction of cannon fire on the Potomac River prior to the Battle of Ball’s Bluff in October 1861.

    White House Collection/White House Historical Association

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About this Gallery

The fight for emancipation throughout the antebellum era is also represented in the White House Collection.