White Women Black Men

The news of Abraham Lincolnandrsquo;s assassination on April 15, 1865, just days after Confederate surrender, astounded the war-weary nation. Massive crowds turned out for services and ceremonies. Countless expressions of grief and dismay were printed in newspapers and preached in sermons. Public responses to the assassination have been well chronicled, but this book is the first to delve into the personal and intimate responses of everyday peopleandmdash;northerners and southerners, soldiers and civilians, black people and white, men and women, rich and poor.

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Through deep and thoughtful exploration of diaries, letters, and other personal writings penned during the spring and summer of 1865, Martha Hodes, one of our finest historians, captures the full range of reactions to the presidentandrsquo;s deathandmdash;far more diverse than public expressions would suggest. She tells a story of shock, glee, sorrow, anger, blame, and fear. andldquo;andrsquo;Tis the saddest day in our history,andrdquo; wrote a mournful man. It was andldquo;an electric shock to my soul,andrdquo; wrote a woman who had escaped from slavery. andldquo;Glorious News!andrdquo; a Lincoln enemy exulted. andldquo;Old Lincoln is dead, and I will kill the goddamned Negroes now,andrdquo; an angry white southerner ranted. For the black soldiers of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts, it was all andldquo;too overwhelming, too lamentable, too distressingandrdquo; to absorb.

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There are many surprises in the story Hodes tells, not least the way in which even those utterly devastated by Lincolnandrsquo;s demise easily interrupted their mourning rituals to attend to the most mundane aspects of everyday life. There is also the unexpected and unabated virulence of Lincolnandrsquo;s northern critics, and the way Confederates simultaneously celebrated Lincolnandrsquo;s death and instantlyandmdash;on the very day he diedandmdash;cast him as a fallen friend to the defeated white South.

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Hodes brings to life a key moment of national uncertainty and confusion, when competing visions of Americaandrsquo;s future proved irreconcilable and hopes for racial justice in the aftermath of the Civil War slipped from the nationandrsquo;s grasp. Hodes masterfully brings the tragedy of Lincolnandrsquo;s assassination alive in human termsandmdash;terms that continue to stagger and rivet us one hundred and fifty years after the event they so strikingly describe.

andquot;Drawing on a remarkable range of diaries, letters, and other contemporary documents, Martha Hodes offers a compelling and moving account of how Americans, black and white, North and South, responded to Lincolnand#39;s assassination. andnbsp;The result is a portrait of a deeply divided country and a foreshadowing of the violent battles to come over reunion and Reconstruction.andquot;andmdash;Eric Foner, author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery and Reconstruction: Americaand#39;s Unfinished Revolution, 1863andndash;1877

andldquo;There are many books on the Lincoln assassination and the public response to it.andnbsp; But Martha Hodesandrsquo;s work is the first to focus in great detail on the responses of ordinary individuals, Northern and Southern, white and black, soldiers and civilians, women and men, in their diaries and personal correspondence, and to blend such response into the larger story of public events.andnbsp; The amount of research is simply staggering.andnbsp; This is a highly original, lucidly written, book.andrdquo;andmdash;James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom

andldquo;Mourning Lincoln is an original and important book that traces various reactions to Lincolnandrsquo;s assassination. Through extensive research, Martha Hodes has discovered voices that are both moving and surprising.andnbsp; The result is an illuminating work that allows us for the first time to understand fully the meaning of Lincolnandrsquo;s death at the time.andrdquo;andmdash;Louis P. Masur, author ofandnbsp;Lincolnand#39;s Hundred Days

andldquo;Beautiful and terrible, Hodesandrsquo;s marvelously written story of the assassination fills the mind, heart and soul. People never forgot the event; this book is a page-turner that makes it all unforgettable again as it also explains how one shocking death illuminated so many others.andrdquo;andmdash;David W. Blight, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory

andquot;Inandnbsp;Mourning Lincoln, Martha Hodesand#39; ingenious approach and graceful execution succeed in deepening our knowledge of a calamity that will never fully end.andquot;andmdash;THOMAS MALLON,andnbsp;author ofandnbsp;Henry and Claraandnbsp;andandnbsp;Mrs. Paineand#39;s Garage

andldquo;This book is a timely reminder that wars rarely end on the battlefield. Through the lens of Lincolnandrsquo;s death, Martha Hodes vividly portrays a scarred and bitter nation that has laid down its arms yet embarked on a conflict that endures 150 years after Appomattox.andrdquo;andmdash;TONY HORWITZ, author of Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

andldquo;A stunning piece of research, based on an extraordinary range of materials often overlooked by traditional historians.andrdquo;andmdash;Michael Burlingame, The Wall Street Journal

andldquo;[A] lyrical and important new study.andrdquo;andmdash;Jill Lepore, The New York Times Book Review

andldquo;This is a book full of things you think you knowandmdash;and the opposite. The author has discovered much that is new and unknown.andrdquo;andmdash;Liz Smith, NewYorkSocialDiary.com

andldquo;An intimate, bracing account.andrdquo;andmdash;Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post

This book is the first to explore the history of a powerful category of illicit sex in America's past: liaisons between Southern white women and black men. In telling a series of stories about such liaisons in the years before the Civil War, Martha Hodes explores the complex ways in which white Southerners tolerated these relationships in the slave South, and shows how and why these responses changed with emancipation.

How did individual Americans respond to the shock of President Lincolnandrsquo;s assassination? Diaries, letters, and intimate writings reveal a complicated, untold story.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [287]-325) and index.

What led you to write a book about personal responses to Lincolnandrsquo;s assassination?

I was in New York City on September 11, 2001, and I remember the moment of Kennedyand#39;s assassination from my childhood. As a historian of the Civil War era, and as someone who lived through those two modern-day transformative events, I wanted to know not only what happened in 1865 when people heard the news of Lincolnandrsquo;s death but also what those responses meant.

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Did anything surprise you during your research?

Almost everything. Not only did I find a much wider array of emotions and stories than Iand#39;d imagined, I also found that even those utterly devastated by the assassination easily interrupted their mourning to attend to the most mundane aspects of everyday life. I also found myself surprised by the unabated virulence of Lincolnand#39;s northern critics and the way Confederates simultaneously celebrated Lincolnand#39;s death and instantlyandmdash;on the very day he diedandmdash;cast him as a fallen friend to the white South.

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Do personal responses to Lincolnand#39;s assassination tell a larger story about American history?

Very much so. The assassination provoked personal responses that were deeply intertwined with different and irreconcilable visions of the postwar and post-emancipation nation. Black freedom, the fate of former Confederates, and the future of the nation were at stake for all Americans, black and white, North and South, whether they grieved or rejoiced when they heard the news.

Praise for Mourning Lincoln

andldquo;There are many books on the Lincoln assassination and the public response to it.and#160; But Martha Hodesandrsquo;s work is the first to focus in great detail on the responses of ordinary individuals, Northern and Southern, white and black, soldiers and civilians, women and men, in their diaries and personal correspondence, and to blend such response into the larger story of public events.and#160; The amount of research is simply staggering.and#160; This is a highly original, lucidly written, book.andrdquo;andmdash;James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom

and#160;andldquo;Beautiful and terrible, Hodesand#39;s marvelously written story of the assassination fills the mind, heart and soul.and#160; People never forgot the event; this book is a page-turner that makes it all unforgettable again as it also explains how one shocking death illuminated so many others.andrdquo;andmdash;David W. Blight, Yale University

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