200 Years

Abraham Lincoln was born 200 years ago today. I set out to write something to honor "the tall one in the stove pipe hat" (Boston Globe, Feb. 12, p.A23, David W. Blight) and my search began with The Boston Globe. I landed on the Opinion Page, where I discovered the perfect tribute, an article written by David W. Blight, quoted above. Mr. Blight, of Yale University, has written a book, "A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Narratives of Emancipation." He starts his Globe article by informing his readers that he is going to spend today in Cohasset, a town on the South Shore, where former slave John Washington is buried, the purpose being to honor him on Lincoln's birthday. Mr. Washington lived at the time of Abraham Lincoln and was freed on April 18, 1862. Many years after the Civil War he moved to Cohasset after having lived in Washington, DC for a time.

Mr. Blight deftly weaves his story through pieces of Mr. Washington's life and intertwines the connections between the former literate slave and the 16th President. The author discusses how John Washington achieved his freedom, on a Friday, the same day of the week Mr. Lincoln was shot. He talks a bit about Washington's time in Washington, D.C., where he lived blocks from Mr. Lincoln and the White House. Mr. Blight discusses how the two men held in common the love of reading and writing.

Quoting Mr. Blight who goes on to quote John Washington, "Washington wrote with creative grammar and spelling. But when it came to remembering his night of freedom, he reached for an eloquence Lincoln would have admired: 'A most memorable night that was for me the soldiers assured me that I was now a free man. . . Before morning I had begun to feel like I had truly escaped from the hand of the slaves master and with the help of God, I never would be a slave no more . . . I began to feel that life had a new joy awaiting me . . . This Was The First Night of my freedom. It was good Friday indeed the Best Friday I had ever seen.'" What tribute could be more fitting to President Lincoln than that testimony?


"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." November 19, 1863 Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Some facts and the above quotation are from the Abraham Lincoln Research Site
http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln77.html

Take time this Lincoln's birthday to read Mr. Blight's article.

The Boston Globe, Feb. 12, 2009, p.A23, Opinion Page, "Lincoln and the former slave" by David Blight
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/02/12/lincoln_and_the_former_slave/