Sunny Hostin drew criticism after saying on ABC’s “The View” that enslaved people, rather than President Abraham Lincoln, were responsible for freeing themselves.
The discussion came during the show’s Veterans Day episode, as the co-hosts talked about people of color who fought in U.S. wars and returned to a country where they still lacked equal rights. Sara Haines raised that point before Hostin turned to the Civil War.
Hostin said enslaved people escaped and joined the Union Army because they wanted to fight for their freedom. “People often say that Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves,” she said. “The slaves basically emancipated themselves because they wanted freedom, and they fought for their freedom.” The studio audience applauded.
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. It declared enslaved people in Confederate territories still fighting the Union to be free and directed the federal government and military to recognize that freedom. The proclamation did not immediately abolish slavery throughout the country, but it allowed Black men to serve in the Union Army and Navy and helped make emancipation a central aim of the war.
Slavery was formally abolished nationwide with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865.
Whoopi Goldberg said Lincoln deserved credit for working to end slavery. Hostin replied that he had wanted enslaved people to return to Africa.
Lincoln did support colonization proposals at different points in his career, including plans for formerly enslaved people to settle in Liberia, Haiti or elsewhere. In an 1854 speech in Peoria, Illinois, he said his first impulse would be to free enslaved people and send them to Liberia. He also backed legislation providing funds for people of African descent who wished to emigrate. At one point, he discussed the possibility of resettlement in Texas.
Critics objected to Hostin’s suggestion that enslaved people had effectively freed themselves. MRC NewsBusters wrote on social media that “not even Abe Lincoln is safe from Sunny Hostin’s hatred of white people.” Conservative author Derek Hunter questioned why, if enslaved people had freed themselves, they had not done so earlier.
