Was Abraham Lincoln Black?

 Inside The Curious Question Of The Great Emancipator’s Race

During Lincoln’s presidency from 1860 to 1865, some suggested that Lincoln had — in their view — an unnaturally close bond with African-Americans. They printed political cartoons, passed around pamphlets, and even dubbed Lincoln “Abraham Africanus I.”

Was Abraham Lincoln Black? Here’s The Evidence

Those who believe that Abraham Lincoln was Black point to two factors: his appearance and his unknown family history.

For starters, Lincoln described himself as having a “dark complexion” and “coarse black hair.” His own father, Lincoln said, had a “swarthy” complexion, “black” hair,” and “brown” eyes. For some contemporaries, this was enough to confirm that Lincoln was black.

British journalist Edward Dicey also noted Lincoln’s “uncombed and uncombable lank dark hair, that stands out in every direction at once… and a few irregular blotches of black bristly hair in the place where beard and whiskers ought to grow.”

Dicey went on to describe Lincoln’s “nose and ears, which have been taken by mistake from a head of twice the size.”

And American writer Nathanial Hawthorne offered up a similar description, noting, “[Lincoln’s] hair was black, still unmixed with gray, stiff, somewhat bushy, and had apparently been acquainted with neither brush nor comb.”

Hawthorne added, “His complexion is dark and sallow… he has thick black eyebrows and an impending brow; his nose is large, and the lines about his mouth are strongly defined.”

But beyond these superficialities, Lincoln came from a somewhat unknown background. His law partner, good friend, and biographer, William Herndon, noted that: “There was something about his origin he never cared to dwell upon.”

Lincoln was especially reticent to discuss his mother, Nancy, which led historian and author J.A. Rogers to speculate that Lincoln “was the illegitimate son of a Negro by Nancy Hanks.”

But if Lincoln was Black, he could be one of several “white” U.S. presidents who may have had multiracial roots. Historians like Rogers have argued that Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, Warren G. Harding, Dwight Eisenhower, and Calvin Coolidge could have been Black.

(And here we all thought Obama was our first black President)