Abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, famed rescuer and spy Harriet Tubman and noted author and lecturer Fredrick Douglass, along with countless other women and blacks, were key in making the country address slavery.

"In many ways, fugitive slaves were architects of their own freedom," Sinha said. "It doesn't take away from Lincoln's role. Emancipation was a huge event; it involved many actors, not the least of which were slaves."