Lincoln didn’t care much about slavery, what he cared about was creating a strong federal government. He thought that if he emancipated the slaves, they’re revolt and slay their masters. He obviously didn’t understand what happens, mentally, to a person born and raised in slavery. When the South was conquered, the north pretty much ignored black people until they started taking their jobs. Pretty much what is happening with illegal immigrants today.
I never though Lincoln was much of a hero. He created a strong Federal government, if he hadn’t, we would have been much like Canada. Slavery would inevitably been abolished, we would have never entered the Spanish American war, WW1 and without a strong American support, Europe wouldn’t have demanded reparations from Germany. Without reparations, Hitler would have never risen to power and many other evil things wouldn’t have happened in the world. I suspect that the world would have been a much more peaceful place had Lincoln never existed.