Confederate Shop
Quite often, the modern narrative of our beloved Civil War history paints a quite different picture than reality. This is particularly true with one of America’s most well-known presidents, Abraham Lincoln. We know for a fact that Lincoln was a White supremacist and that he wanted to send the free blacks back to Africa—even four days prior to his death. (1)(2) We know he handled lawsuits involving runaway slaves in order to return them to their masters and we understand that his emancipation proclamation did not free a single slave in northern occupied territories, or states that still remained within the Union. (3)(4) What else could it take to blow the lid off the never-ending Lincoln myth? Or should we say, the myth of the kindly President Lincoln?
Well, a recently uncovered document has proven without a doubt that Abraham Lincoln himself owned and had slaves sold. The following document is in the Regenstein Library of the University of Chicago, entitled “Lincoln's Order to sell his slaves, answer to RE Edwards, etc.,” Oldham Todd & Co., 1850.
Kevin Orlin Johnson, the author of The Lincolns in the White House found this piece of history in a dusty box at the Regenstein Library of the University of Chicago, unsurprisingly uncatalogued since it was bequeathed to the library in 1930. The affidavit was written in 1850 by the Lincoln family attorneys Kinkead and Breckinridge. It’s Lincoln’s answer to a Bill in Chancery filed in Fayette County about the disposition of property that the couple had inherited from Robert Todd (Abraham Lincoln's father-in-law). It certifies that Lincoln and his wife “are willing that the slaves mentioned in the Bill shall be sold on such terms as the Court may think advisable.”
We knew that when Lincoln married Mary Todd he inherited the slaves from her father’s estate, but up until recently we only assumed he sold them. It's a fact, that Mr. Lincoln inherited slaves and did not free them, as so many would assume, but profited by having them sold back into slavery.
Now, to the naysayers and Lincoln-worshippers who currently have a candle lit by his effigy, you might say, this was 1850—Lincoln was a changed man by the time of the Civil War. Was he though? As I previously stated, up until his death he was in favor of repatriating the free blacks back to Africa. We also know that after the first states seceded in 1861, Lincoln sent letters to the state governors, telling them he supported the Corwin Amendment, a Northern proposed measure that would have permanently protected slavery within the U.S. Constitution. (5) Sure, there are plenty of political anti-slavery quotes by Lincoln —but don’t actions speak louder than words? If they do, then we must take these pieces of evidence and judge the man accordingly.
Sources:
1) Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 4th Debate, Part 1, September 18, 1858
2) https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2010/12/01/lincoln-to-slaves-go-somewhere-else/
3) The Matson Trial (October 1847), officially Matson v. Ashmore et al.
4) https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation
5) https://www.lib.niu.edu/2006/ih060934.html
