Lincoln's thinking on race changed significantly from 1847, when he defended a slaveowner's property rights in an Illinois court, to 1854, when he declared his opposition to the extension of slavery and moral acceptability of slavery as an institution, to 1862, when he decided that the time for the emancipation of traitors' slaves was justified, to 1863 when his conversations with Frederick Douglass and others convinced him of the justice of full enfranchisement.
Unlike many people, Lincoln had a strong faculty for absorbing and processing new information and for thinking things through beyond his first impressions or even his first analysis.
“Lincoln's thinking on race changed significantly from 1847, when he defended a slaveowner’s property rights in an Illinois court, to 1854, when he declared his opposition to the extension of slavery and moral acceptability of slavery as an institution, to 1862, when he decided that the time for the emancipation of traitors’ slaves was justified, to 1863 when his conversations with Frederick Douglass and others convinced him of the justice of full enfranchisement.”
Abraham never hurt anyone. He was just starting to turn his life around.