The black man's president Abraham Lincoln, African Americans, & the pursuit of racial equality

Astonished by the new president's fervor, a journalist reported in 1861 that Abraham Lincoln had "declared he would 'rather be assassinated on the spot' than abandon his idea of Negro independence and Negro equality." In this illuminating chronicle of the unwavering courage Lincoln manifested in living--and dying--by that commitment, Burlingame recounts how in both his policy decisions and his personal relationships, Lincoln earned Frederick Douglass' praise of him as "the Black Man's president." Readers learn how the maturing Lincoln first developed his racial egalitarianism through friendships with African Americans he knew as a young lawyer in Illinois--his abiding tie with his Springfield barber, William "Billy" Florville, typifying these friendships. Burlingame's compellingly detailed narrative shows that even as he ascended to the nation's highest office, Lincoln remained appreciative of African Americans from diverse social backgrounds and forged political alliances with Black leaders, such as Douglass, William Slade, Daniel Payne, and Sojourner Truth. Readers watch Lincoln--galvanized by his experiences with oppressed African Americans--fight to free Blacks from slavery, to open opportunities for them to serve in the Union army, and--most daringly--to give them the vote in the postwar republic. An engrossing portrait of a great statesman's valiant struggle to give African Americans rights long denied.

Historian Burlingame (Abraham Lincoln: A Life) defends Abraham Lincoln against charges of racism in this provocative and extensively documented account. Marshaling a wealth of primary sources, Burlingame argues that Lincoln, while at times a pragmatic politician who paid "lip service" to notions of white supremacy, was at heart a racial egalitarian. He documents Lincoln's friendly relations with Blacks in Illinois and Washington, D.C., and notes that Lincoln's "unfailing cordiality to African Americans in general" was witnessed and written about countless times in a "Negrophobic" country. According to Burlingame, Lincoln's support for resettling free Blacks in Liberia was "rather lukewarm" and only taken up "to provide a refuge for Black pessimists who feared that they would never attain full citizenship status in the U.S." Evidence of Lincoln's commitment to racial equality is also found in his endorsement of voting rights for "very intelligent" Blacks and those who served in the Union Army. Burlingame's assertion that Lincoln would have eventually called for the enfranchisement of all Black men is mere conjecture, however, and he cherry-picks Frederick Douglass's praise for Lincoln while dismissing his criticisms as hyperbolic. Still, this is a resolute and well-researched vindication of Lincoln's progressive credentials. (Nov.)

A look at Lincoln's extensive affiliations with Black leaders, from his law practice to the White House, as key indications of his egalitarian thoughts and feelings. Historian Burlingame, the chair in Lincoln studies at the University of Illinois, moves beyond Lincoln's well-examined speeches and writings on African Americans to examine the personal relations he developed with Black leaders such as Frederick Douglass over time. "As a racial egalitarian," writes the author, "Lincoln condemned the doctrine of White superiority." Burlingame, whose last book explored the Lincolns' marriage, sets out to chronicle examples through Lincoln's defense of Blacks in his law practice and his welcoming of Black visitors to the White House as well as his deep repugnance of others' expressions of White supremacy, including those by his own wife. He was a defender of the working people and the downtrodden, despite the color of their skin, and Black citizens in Springfield appreciated his personal touch. Studying details of Lincoln's law practice and voting record, Burlingame surmises that he probably opposed the racist Black Code of Illinois. While he initially endorsed the Black colonization movement (to Liberia or Central America), mainly because he did not think White voters would endorse emancipation, later he was more muted in response to Black objections to the movement. Lincoln's treatment of his Black staff--e.g., William H. Johnson, a servant who accompanied the family from Springfield to Washington, D.C., in 1861--is legendary, and Lincoln went out of his way to invite Douglass, his fiercest critic, to the White House and include Black guests at his inauguration (to the consternation of his wife). Burlingame addresses Lincoln's use of the N-word and delight in minstrel shows as indicative of him being a man of his time rather than indicating a racist worldview, as other critics have maintained. A moderate defense of Lincoln's racial views that should invite further debate about the subject. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.