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The relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his two most influential ancestors--his mother and "the Virginia planter," a slaveholder, a shadowy grandfather he likely never met--is rarely mentioned in Lincoln biographies or in history texts. However, Lincoln, forever linked to the cause of freedom and equality in America, spoke candidly of the planter to his law partner, Billy Herndon, who recalled his words, "My mother inherited his qualities and I hers. All that I am or ever hope to be I get from my mother--God bless her."
This vital two-generation relationship was nonetheless problematic. In Lincoln's boyhood the planter was a figure he ridiculed while in his young manhood the planter evolved into a role model whom Lincoln revered and associated with Jefferson's overdue ideal that "all men are created equal." Thus galvanized "by blood" to educate himself, to stand for election and to oppose slavery, Lincoln quit farming at age 22. This book explains how he thus followed an inherited family dream.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Preface
A Note on Method and Sources
Source Abbreviations
Part One: Reports
¿1.¿Nancy Hanks, Backwoods Debater (circa 1800)
¿2.¿The Weaving Shed Story (1817 or 1818)
¿3.¿Two Scary Grandfathers (Lincoln's Boyhood)
¿4.¿Lincoln Investigates His Grandfathers (1848 and 1854)
¿5.¿What Lincoln Told Billy Herndon (circa 1851)
¿6.¿What Lincoln Told the "Special Correspondent" (1860)
¿7.¿Lincoln's "Great Cause" (1863)
Part Two: Reflections
¿8.¿Lincoln's Mother, Lincoln's Hero
¿9.¿Nancy Hanks at and Outside of the Berrys'
10.¿First Fruits: Sally, the Lincolns' Firstborn
11.¿The Great Educational Debate
12.¿The Winter of the Deep Snow
13.¿A Meditation on Lucy Hanks, Her Impact on Her Daughter, and on Lincoln
14.¿What Lincoln Told Neither Herndon Nor the Special Correspondent
15.¿The Farmers and the Enslaved
16.¿Lincoln and His Ancestors
Part Three: Recapitulation
17.¿Lincoln's Hope of an Immortal Name
Afterword
Appendix A: Lincoln: Uncertainty, Probabilities and the Census of 1850: A Speculative Essay
Appendix B: Lincoln's Schooling (An Approximation)
Appendix C: Lincoln's Early Encounters with Enslaved Persons and Statements About Slavery
Appendix D: Lincoln's Campaigns for Public Office
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Wayne Soini is a retired labor lawyer living in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He has researched and written six nonfiction books.
Summary
Examines the rarely-covered relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his most influential ancestors, and demonstrates how that relationship drove Lincoln’s self-image and his enduring popular image today.
