Historical actors’ self-interested moves produced revolutions they never intended.

Evidence

Leaders, then, led in increments. The northern field officers who put the fugitive slaves to work did not intend to free them… but they did. The Confederacy moved to preserve slavery … it helped to end it. Groups moved to the logic of immediate self-interest and to historical paradox. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1126

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Hegel’s ‘cunning of Reason’ applied to emancipation: leaders only ‘led in increments’ while the logic of self-interest drove unintended revolution.