They Knew Lincoln

Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-0-19-027096-4
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 368 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 591 g

They Knew Lincoln, first published in 1942, captures impressions of Abraham Lincoln by African Americans who personally knew and interacted with him in Springfield, Illinois, and Washington, DC. Dr. John Washington, an African American collector of Lincoln memorabilia, who grew up in the shadow of Ford's Theatre in the late 19th century, gathered stories through personal interviews with Lincoln's African American acquaintances or their children. They include Lincoln's barbers, White House servants, waiters, doorkeepers and others. A large section is devoted to Mary Lincoln's African American seamstress and confidant Elizabeth Keckley. Washington conducted research in collections across the Southeast and Midwest; he interviewed elderly African Americans in Washington, Maryland, and Virginia; and he reached out to the foremost Lincoln scholars and collectors of his era, hoping for new leads and new information.

This remarkable book was originally published by E.P. Dutton, including a strong introduction by the famed poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg. The "collection of Negro stories, memories, legends about Lincoln" seemed "to fill such an obvious gap in the material about Lincoln that one wonders why no one ever did it before." Even in the twenty-first century, They Knew Lincoln remains unsurpassed as a study of the African Americans who knew Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. In recent years historians have regularly turned to Washington's book as a crucial source of information about the Lincolns' domestic world and about black Washington in the Civil War era. Yet the book has never been reprinted and remains largely unavailable. This reissue reproduces the original text in full and

the rare photos that appeared in the original book (as well as some additional ones of John E. Washington), along with a significant original essay by Kate Masur about the publication of the book, its author, and the subjects covered by this unusual work.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Washington, John E.

Masur, Kate

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Geschichte der Sklaverei
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Editor's Introduction

- Foreword by the Author

- Introduction by Carl Sandburg

- Acknowledgments

- Prelude- Recollections of the Ford Theater Neighborhood

- Part One: Those Who Loved Lincoln

- Grandmother-- Her Story of the Three C's

- The Beginning of the Artist-- "Booth's Annihilation"

- Cousin Annie-- Tells about the Keckley and Herndon Books

- Uncle Ben, the Preacher-- Cartoon of "Riding around the Circuit"

- His Stories of--King Solomon's Wisdom

- The Divine Preparation

- Aunt Eliza

- Aunt Eliza's Death

- Aunt Rosetta Wells-- Her Stories of Little Tad Lincoln and the White House

- Uncle Buck

- Aunt Mary Dines-- The Contraband Singer

- Her Stories of Lincoln's Visits to the Contraband Camp--Their Exercises for Him and His Part in Them

- Old Aunt Phobe Bias-- Her Story of the "Big Watch-Meeting" before the Emancipation Proclamation

- Uncle Sandy-- His Story of the Ford's Theater Ghosts

- Interlude- Slavery in the East

- Part Two: Those Who Served Lincoln

- William Slade-- Confidential Messenger and Friend

- Aunt Rosetta Wells-- White House Seamstress

- Cornelia Mitchell-- White House Cook

- Peter Brown-- Butler and Waiter at the White House

- William Johnson-- Lincoln's First Bodyguard

- Solomon Johnson-- Lincoln's Personal Barber

- Part Three: Those Who Remembered Lincoln

- Aunt Vina-- Her Home and Souvenirs of Lincoln

- Her Description of Lincoln's Funeral

- Aunt Elizabeth Thomas-- Heroine of Fort Stevens

- John Henry Coghill- Living Witness of Booth's Capture and Death

- Her Personal Statement

- Tom Gardiner-- How He Knew the Conspirators and Booth's Plans

- Personal Statement by Him

- William J. Ferguson--The Only Witness of All the Phases of Lincoln's Assassination

- Part Four: The Springfield Revelation

- William de Fleurville-- Also Known as William Florville and "Billy the Barber"

- Part Five: Elizabeth Keckley

- Elizabeth Keckley--Companion and Confidante of Mrs. Lincoln

- "Behind the Scenes"-- Story of Mrs. Keckley's book

- Mary Todd Lincoln-- Love of the Negro for Lincoln's Wife

- Appendix

Über Autor(innen)

John E. Washington (1880-1964) was a Washington, DC public school teacher and collector of Lincoln memorabilia. He published They Knew Lincoln in 1942. Kate Masur is Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University. She is the author of An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle over Equality in Washington, D.C. and the co-editor of The World the Civil War Made.