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Four Myths About President Abraham Lincoln
Let’s be honest about Honest Abe
More than a year ago, I published an article about US President Abraham Lincoln’s conflicted (and conflicting) views on slavery and race. What I recently realized I have not done is debunk any of the numerous myths about the 16th president, so I’m correcting that now. Because I did cover them in that early article, Lincoln’s views on the issue of slavery will not be rehashed here; in a nutshell, his greatest concern was always the preservation of the Union.
Now on with the myths, some of which are more stubbornly persistent than others.
1. Lincoln owned slaves. This is a historical revision put forward by some that Lincoln, in reality, supported slavery and only emancipated the slaves in the South to keep Britain and France from supporting the Confederacy. It’s a crazy claim on several levels, most obviously because except for a seven-year period from his birth to age seven when his family lived in Kentucky, Lincoln lived his entire life in free states, where owning slaves was prohibited by law. Also, Lincoln was raised as a member of the Separate Baptists, a denomination that forbade (among numerous other things) drinking alcohol, dancing, and owning slaves. It is true that his wife Mary’s relatives owned slaves, but Lincoln never did.
