The Lincoln Myth, Part I: The Racist

Abraham Lincoln is greatly regarded as one of the greatest, if not THE greatest president in United States history. Much of that is due to the fact that Lincoln’s side, the Union, won the Civil War and thus freed the slaves. Lincoln has been heralded as a hero to black Americans and all Americans in general. He is seen as the one man who stood up against the racist roots and traditions within our country and shattered them, leading for equality between blacks and whites and really all races. At least, that’s how it is taught in schools: Lincoln the hero who saved the slaves and improved race relations in America forever. Be prepared, sometimes a dose of reality can be hard to swallow. This is a red pill/blue pill moment. After this there is no turning back, so hit the back button now before your perception of one of our greatest presidents is completely assaulted, disassembled and analyzed.

Point blank: Abraham Lincoln was racist.

Now that that cheetah is out of the sack, let’s look at the evidence that backs up that statement. To start, here’s a quote from Abraham Lincoln: the man, the myth, the legend.

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”

Pretty disturbing, eh? That doesn’t sound like the American hero.. but it is. Here’s another one.

“I am not now, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social or political equality of the white and black races. I am not now nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor of intermarriages with white people. There is a physical difference between the white and the black races which will forever forbid the two races living together on social or political equality. There must be a position of superior and inferior, and I am in favor of assigning the superior position to the white man.”

Shit man, that’s pretty fucked up. Lincoln sounds like a fucking Grand Wizard! Well, it does not end there.

“I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think differently? I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do, in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do any thing for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive—even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept.”

Lincoln Lincoln yo ass is stinkin’! This muthafucka must be trippin’!

“See our present condition—the country engaged in war! Our White men cutting one another’s throats! And then consider what we know to be the truth. But for your race among us there could not be war, although many men engaged on either side do not care for you one way or another. “Why should the people of your race be colonized, and where? Why should they leave this country? This is, perhaps, the first question for proper consideration. You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated.”

Alright alright, enough with the quotes. I just figured that the point of this blog could best be made by showing you, the reader, Lincoln’s own words. He is, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, a racist bigoted string bean giant piece of crap.

According to Lincoln critic, Lerone Bennett Jr., Honest Abe was a bigot and a habitual user of the “N” word. He loved blackface minstrel shows and “darky” jokes. Lincoln supported the Fugitive Slave Act, which returned escaped slaves in the North back to their slave owners in the South. He also supported pre-Civil War laws that stripped blacks of their basic rights in his home state of Illinois.

Here’s a quote from a Time Magazine article about Lerone Bennett’s book “Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream”:

“Bennett’s main theme is that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was only “a ploy” designed to keep as many slaves in bondage as possible until Lincoln could build support for his plan for ending slavery: “colonization,” a preposterous scheme to ship the black population either to Africa or South America. His fondest dream, Bennett writes, was of a “lily-white America without Native Americans, African Americans and Martin Luther Kings.”

I don’t know much about Lerone Bennett Jr. but even though he has a slew of critics, his book is also highly regarded by many African-Americans who are clued in to the reality of who Abraham Lincoln really was. Taking the preceding quotes into account, I don’t find Bennett’s claims to be too far fetched.

All I can say, is for anyone doubting Bennett’s words, do your own research. I plan to look deeper into all of this as I am also going to write about Lincoln’s blatant tyranny. I’m not trying to crush an American hero, I’m just putting out the truth of who he was so people can learn that perception is often times bullshit. Dig deep and don’t rely on your teachers and friends to shape your world. Also, realize that many of these iconic historical figures have been raised to deity status. Humans are humans, they are not gods. Even Mother Teresa, the Dali Lami and Ghandi were kind of assholes. More on Lincoln at a later date.