Prologue

Dedicated to Professor Gordon Milne who taught me to write

There is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe
will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political
equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together,
there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any man am
in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

Lincoln speaking in debate with Douglas at Charleston, IL, on September 18, 1858

While Abraham Lincoln’s record attests to his unwavering opposition to slavery, scholars continue to struggle with whether or not he finally came to believe in true equality between the races. Had he lived to oversee Reconstruction, the answer would be much clearer. But that was not to be. So what follows here is the author’s best conjecture as to his personal journey on race.