Archive for August, 2007
« Previous Entries"The Officially Sanctioned History is True"
Friday, August 31st, 2007Here’s the scenario: You are taking a carriage ride through historic Philadelphia when your tour-guide nonchalantly remarks that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln once had dinner together. What do you do? How about when the tour-guide says Benjamin Franklin was a notorious womanizer who fathered 69 illegitimate children. What then? You know both claims are [...]
"Did Abraham Lincoln Own Slaves?"
Thursday, August 30th, 2007Did Abraham Lincoln own slaves? The answer is no. Nevertheless, that is the title of an upcoming lecture. Gerald J. Prokopowicz will be speaking at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois on Friday, September 7. The lecture begins at 4 pm and is free and open to the public. He will be talking about his upcoming [...]
"The History Detectives"
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007Last June I reported on a firefighter named Joseph Skanks. Just after a 24-hour shift, he stopped by an estate sale and bought a pile of old photos, books, and letters for $8. When he sorted through the stack, he found a letter addressed to Henry Clay Whitney, signed A. Lincoln. Was it the real [...]
"I Have a Dream"
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. served as the backdrop for one of the most well-known speeches in American history. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream Speech” 44 years ago today. Initiated by A. Philip Randolph, “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” drew about 250,000 people to the [...]
Teaching Resources
Monday, August 27th, 2007Last semester I received a number of emails from teachers who used the Lincoln studies website as a teaching resource. I was very pleased and started to think about how I might expand certain sections. I have started implementing some of those changes. Give the Primary Documents section a click. I have added quite a [...]
An Old Grudge
Friday, August 24th, 2007There was a sick man in Illinois who was told he probably didn’t have long to live. The doctor told him he should put his affairs in order, and above all else, he should make peace with his enemies before he died. He hated a man named Brown more than anybody else. They had been [...]
"Memorandum on Probable Failure"
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007“You think I don’t know I am going to be beaten,” Lincoln said, “but I do and unless some great change takes place badly beaten.” Things were not going well. Ulysses S. Grant was labeled a “Butcher,” there was opposition to the draft, both radical and conservative elements of the Republican Party were warring with [...]
An Answer to the "Prayer of the Twenty Millions"
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007The president read the 2,200-word “Prayer of the Twenty Millions.” Horace Greeley had never been a particularly patient man, but now he was beside himself. Greeley told the president that his strategy was a failure. Lincoln pledged to save the Union, but the rebellion had now been going on for a year and a half. [...]
The Prophet
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007It was a slave owner’s worst nightmare: slaves and free blacks traveling house-to-house, freeing those held in bondage and murdering those who owned them. Sometimes nightmares come true. “The Prophet” entered the world as a slave in 1800. He escaped from his master once before, but when God told him to return to his master, [...]
"The Prayer of the Twenty Millions"
Monday, August 20th, 2007The newspaper editor had been writing Lincoln for almost two years. Just after the election, he warned him of the possibility of assassination, “Even your life is not safe, and it is your simple duty to be very careful of exposing it.” Seven months later, just after the disastrous Union defeat at the Battle of [...]
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