April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., less than a week after the Confederate surrender officially ended the Civil War. This made Lincoln into the ultimate martyr of American history and reshaped the Civil War memory-making process for many Americans. A white personal friend of Lincoln’s reflected on the event in a letter five days later, writing: “I feel that there is no selfishness mixed up with my sorrow. The loss of Mr. Lincoln will not affect my personal interests unfavorably.” It is interesting to consider how the reactions of newly freed African Americans would differ in this regard. Many African Americans had not yet received the news of emancipation. For those that had, the person who issued this policy was now dead and the future was uncertain. For those who had not, such as people in Texas who would not learn of their freedom until June 19, perhaps they learned of Lincoln’s death and the Emancipation Proclamation on the same day. Or even the same brief conversation.
Citations: John Rhodehamel, America’s Original Sin: White Supremacy, John Wilkes Booth, and the Lincoln Assassination (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021), 410, Kindle edition; Dr. Anson G. Henry to his wife (unnamed), April 19, 1865, 2, https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/1175; John Sartain and W. H. Hermans, “Abraham Lincoln the Martyr,” painting (location unknown, c. 1866), https://www.si.edu/object/abraham-lincoln-martyr:saam_1971.236.
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