John E. Washington – författare

They Knew Lincoln, first published in 1942, captures impressions of Abraham Lincoln by African Americans who personally knew and interacted with him in Springfield, Illinois, and Washington, DC. Dr. John Washington, an African American collector of Lincoln memorabilia, who grew up in the shadow of Ford's Theatre in the late 19th century, gathered stories through personal interviews with Lincoln's African American acquaintances or their children. They include Lincoln's barbers, White House servants, waiters, doorkeepers and others. A large section is devoted to Mary Lincoln's African American seamstress and confidant Elizabeth Keckley. Washington conducted research in collections across the Southeast and Midwest; he interviewed elderly African Americans in Washington, Maryland, and Virginia; and he reached out to the foremost Lincoln scholars and collectors of his era, hoping for new leads and new information. This remarkable book was originally published by E.P. Dutton, including a strong introduction by the famed poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg. The "collection of Negro stories, memories, legends about Lincoln" seemed "to fill such an obvious gap in the material about Lincoln that one wonders why no one ever did it before." Even in the twenty-first century, They Knew Lincoln remains unsurpassed as a study of the African Americans who knew Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. In recent years historians have regularly turned to Washington's book as a crucial source of information about the Lincolns' domestic world and about black Washington in the Civil War era. Yet the book has never been reprinted and remains largely unavailable. This reissue reproduces the original text in full and the rare photos that appeared in the original book (as well as some additional ones of John E. Washington), along with a significant original essay by Kate Masur about the publication of the book, its author, and the subjects covered by this unusual work.

Originally published in 1942 and now reprinted for the first time, They Knew Lincoln is a classic in African American history and Lincoln studies. Part memoir and part history, the book is an account of John E. Washington''s childhood among African Americans in Washington, DC, and of the black people who knew or encountered Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. Washington recounted stories told by his grandmother''s elderly friends--stories of escaping from slavery, meeting Lincoln in the Capitol, learning of the president''s assassination, and hearing ghosts at Ford''s Theatre. He also mined the US government archives and researched little-known figures in Lincoln''s life, including William Johnson, who accompanied Lincoln from Springfield to Washington, and William Slade, the steward in Lincoln''s White House. Washington was fascinated from childhood by the question of how much African Americans themselves had shaped Lincoln''s views on slavery and race, and he believed Lincoln''s Haitian-born barber, William de Fleurville, was a crucial influence. Washington also extensively researched Elizabeth Keckly, the dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln, and advanced a new theory of who helped her write her controversial book, Behind the Scenes,A new introduction by Kate Masur places Washington''s book in its own context, explaining the contents of They Knew Lincoln in light of not only the era of emancipation and the Civil War, but also Washington''s own times, when the nation''s capital was a place of great opportunity and creativity for members of the African American elite. On publication, a reviewer noted that the "collection of Negro stories, memories, legends about Lincoln" seemed "to fill such an obvious gap in the material about Lincoln that one wonders why no one ever did it before." This edition brings it back to print for a twenty-first century readership that remains fascinated with Abraham Lincoln.