Why did a nation founded on ideals of freedom and equality tolerate for so long one of the harshest labor systems the world has known? A traveling exhibition opening at the State Library of Ohio on March 7, 2011looks for answers to this question by tracing Abraham Lincoln’s gradual transformation from an antislavery moderate into “The Great Emancipator,” who began the process to free all slaves with a revolutionary war-time proclamation in 1863. “Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation” will be on display at the library until April 15, 2011.
