Over 16,000 books have been written about Abraham Lincoln, our greatest President. Many of these books either allude to or specifically report about Lincoln’s homoerotic relationships with men. It is historical fact that Lincoln lived with and shared a bed with Joshua Speed for four years and they remained friends years after they no longer lived together. He also had a close relationship with Captain David Derickson who would stay with Lincoln overnight at the Soldiers Home (a retreat from the White House) when Lincoln’s wife Mary left town. There were reports of Captain Derickson wearing Lincoln’s nightshirt and Lincoln has been quoted as saying (with a “twinkle” in his eye) the “Captain and I are getting quite thick”.
Many historians are quick to say that men shared beds due to a bed shortage and surely Lincoln, the savior of the Union, could not be gay. The studied impulse to make Lincoln absolutely heterosexual reflects a discernible societal discomfort with the complexities of human sexuality and sexual orientation, as well as deeply embedded streaks of homophobia.
American history is not only written in books but in the sacred narration of family stories that endure as indelible parchment in our hearts. Thomas Jefferson had an affair with his slave Sally Hemings fathering many children with her. The family history of Sally Hemings descendants never wavered from the fact of Jefferson’s paternity, a situation which had been disputed by many offended historians. Surely, they protested, the author of the Declaration of Independence would not have had a sexual liaison with a slave. Genetic testing proved them to be wrong.
America’s founding fathers had sex with slaves. No dispute on that. This brings us to my own family history. Growing up my mother told me that we were from Blair House, the guest house for the White House. She stated that her great- grandmother was a servant at Blair House, had an affair with the master of Blair House, and she also babysat Lincoln’s kids. The affair produced a child, Mattie, born October 20, 1860.
When I began to research this family story I found that the master of the house was none other than Montgomery Blair, the lawyer for Dred Scott, Lincoln’s Postmaster General and a member of his Cabinet. Montgomery’s father was Francis P. Blair, one of the founders of the Republican Party. While I have not yet learned the name of my great-great-grandmother, I found indisputable evidence that the Blair’s owned slaves and had set them free before the Civil War. I also found that most of those former slaves remained working for the Blair families.
Because this research also led to me learning more about Abraham Lincoln—it resulted in my falling in love with him. I read about his great soul, his better angel genius, his beloved children, his love of animals, his soaring words, his melancholy, and his signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
And as I went on this journey, I also read about his male preference social life. This led me to find increasing evidence about his sexuality. As a sexologist, I posit that Lincoln was a Kinsey 4 — homosexual with more than incidental opposite sex contact. (See Kinsey scale).
Yet, as I studied his magnificent life, I realized that William Herndon, his law partner for 20 years and keeper of Lincoln’s legacy, never mentioned anything that would leave one to believe that Lincoln was gay.
One day I was having lunch with Rev. Cindi Love, the Executive Director of Soul Force. I was telling her about my family history, my burgeoning love affair with Abraham Lincoln and my quest to search out more information. Here is how the conversation went:
“I have been researching Lincoln and found a lot about his relationships with men and I am getting this from a many sources. But I am puzzled about one thing: William Herndon has not mentioned or written anything that would indicate that Lincoln was gay.” Rev. Love gave me a telling look and said: “Well here is the missing piece of your puzzle. My maiden name is Herndon. William Herndon was my great-great uncle and he was gay, and he was Lincoln’s lover.”
She went on to talk about how this information was handed down from generation to generation in the Herndon family.
There are history books and there are generational stories that add tints and textures to the narrative weaving, giving character and quality to the threads of the loom of history.
Lincoln was gay and that is simply the sweet icing on the cake of the life story of our greatest President.
Fascinating, just fascinating. And yes a person’s sexual orientation does get pass down through the generations. Somewhere in my family 3 generations back somebody was a hermaphrodite. (is that the right way to say that? It is the word my grandmother used) This would have been someone born in the mid 1800′s. So yes I can attest this type of information does get passed on down through the generations.
“Hermaphrodite” means a person with sexual organs of both sexes; was that what your grandmother was talking about? But in everyday speech it could mean almost anything: an “effeminate” man, a woman who wore pants, or any number of other possibilities.
This article doesn’t say that sexual orientation gets passed down through the generations; what it does say is that lore about people’s sex lives gets passed down. But not always accurately. I hope our author got more details from Ms. Love than that flat statement. A conscientious sexologist doesn’t “posit” anything about a person’s place on the Kinsey scale. A sexologist knows that you place a person on the Kinsey scale after you’ve administered Kinsey’s questionnaire and gotten their sexual history. That’s hard do with someone who’s been dead for 157 years.
I’ve been told that the trans and intersex communities generally find the term hermaphrodite derogatory, though some do use to identify themselves. Being a true hermaphrodite generally implies the ability to asexually reproduce, or at least take either role in providing half the genetic material.
In any case, some interesting stuff can be found in family histories. I’m apparently related to a participant of the Boston Tea Party and the Queen of England.
I think the opposite is also true – that when we see something that, by our modern standards, must mean they are gay, we jump at it. I don’t think sharing a bed necessarily equals sexual interaction. If human sexuality and psychology is as complex and grey as people make it out to be, then maybe the conclusions we draw must not be so cut-and-dry as “Lincoln shared a bed with these men so he was having sex with these men so he was gay according to our modern interpretation of the word.”
I don’t care if Lincoln was “one of us;” his sexuality really isn’t my concern and has no bearing on whether or not he was a great President. And if he actually *was* heterosexual, I’m not going to take that as a negative, either.
I’m always wary when someone talks about “our modern standards,” since so often the term is used when someone is trying to erase the naughty bits in the history of sexuality.
You’re right, sharing a bed is not necessarily a sign of sexual activity, but I consider it “modern standards” to jump to the conclusion that two men who shared a bed for four years, when they didn’t have to — Lincoln was a successful lawyer and could have gotten a bed of his own soon enough if he wanted to — were necessarily not fooling around. We’ll never know. But we should admit what we do know. And we shouldn’t hide behind terminology like “our modern standards” or “homosexuality as we know it today.” (As though “we” only “know” homosexuality in one way.) If we want to avoid modern concepts, though, we could say that maybe Lincoln and Speed were Sodomites; that’s a premodern standard for you.
I agree: it wouldn’t affect my opinion of Lincoln if we knew definitely that he was a Sodomite, or that he wasn’t. But the evidence we have is suggestive, and it should be discussed seriously, not dismissed. We’ll learn something from discussing it, if nothing else.
Duncan, yes this long departed relative had both sex organs. I couldn’t think of the right word, but yes intersex is the right word. I really don’t like the word hermaphrodite at ALL.
You are all correct, hermaphrodite comes from combining the words Hermes (Mercury) and Aphrodite (Venus). The blending of the genders. Intersexed is more appropriate both medically and socially. I believe in mythology Hermes/Mercury had a bisexual, changeable, now you see it, now you don’t quality; that’s how the metal mercury (quicksilver) got its name. Appropriately Mercury/Hermes is also the ruler of the sign Gemini (the twins) (duality).
I have no opinion on the sexual orientation of Lincoln, but I also believe that some better evidence needs to be put forth before making the claim that he was gay. Social rules change drastically over time. I realize the it is very difficult to either confirm or refute a person’s sexual orientation over a hundred years later. However, an academically thorough study of writings (journals, letters, etc) should give us a more fact-based opinion. I would be thrilled to think he was gay, but more proof is needed.
Regarding the use of the term, “hermaphrodite:” people of Victorian times did not always use it in its taxonomical /biological meaning, but rather used it as a “polite” way to indicate that a person was a cross-dresser. I am a baby boomer and I can remember my grandmother discreetly referring to a certain neighbor as an “hermaphrodite,” and, as a child, when I asked what that meant, she whispered, “it means that he is a man who prefers to wear ladies’ clothing, but it’s not nice to use some of the insulting terms people have for people like that, so we say, “hermaphrodite.” Biologically incorrect sometimes, but an often used Victorian affectation.
I guess Newsweek will need to do something about this cover then.
Formerly an LAngelican resident of forty years, I now grace the ‘Land of Lincoln’ and call it home. In Springfield everything is about the life and places of Mr. Ham Lincoln as we call him! I walk the historically preserved neighborhood in which he lived, visit the simple but beautiful home he lived with Martha and the kids. Little known fact, Martha often sat for hours in a designated corner near a window that was said to be like her mourning place. Austere. Lincoln could walk the few blocks to the old Capitol Building or even to the Herndon-Lincoln Law practice office within minutes. It is said that Lincoln and Martha practiced no restraint with their children and would just allow them to overrun the law office, jump on beds at homes, and eat/sleep when they wanted. By all accounts, Lincoln was a sweet man, devoted to his children and his calling. His spectacular tomb is both a museum and the final resting place not only for him but the family is buried on top of him. (You know the story of how his body was once stolen.) Their are no heirs from the Lincoln dynasty. Children died tragically. Martha was probably an undiagnosed bipolar schizophrenic! I said all that to say that those are the local facts I have learned of this great man. he has not shared further. However the feeling I get from walking around in his world is that Lincoln loved and sought the attention of men; that Lincoln was a man of great passion and greater loneliness, soothed from time to time by the understanding kindness of other men. I love him too. Theal
Was Martha her nickname? I am totally confused now…
Correction: Mary Todd Lincoln
If you read the story. The response explains a story passed down from the person who was being told about Lincoln, was actually related to the other person in the story. It was a confirming story. I hope that helps. I have read some of Lincolns letters to his friend. They are more than flowery. They are longing to sleep together again. Loving and pining.
I find it funny that Richard the Lionhearted and King Philip of France shared the same bed for four or five years in Phil’s castle in Paris in the 1180s, and went off to Sicily for months together — it scandalized Europe — Eleanor of Aquitaine wrote letters to her son, the Lionheart, and use the word “gai” in them (15 exist in some form or another, fragments, copies, etc,) and well, historians for decades have to say repeatedly in their biographies of Richard (he gets more than Philip) that “men shared beds in those times” and I’m like: “KIngs!?!” — egad. Still, it’s telling that heteros will never admit someone famous or beloved could be gay — it would ruin their dream world. Just like “gay” is a new word, ahem, from the 1180s, used as today. Weird, no?
Nice, too, that your family history is becoming clearer to you —
As for Lincoln the best president, oh, there’s a bit of revisionism going on — seems he was quite the racist — wanted to export all the blacks the minute they were free .. see Lerone Bennett, Jr., “Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’ s White Dream,” — and perhaps it might alter your perceptions somewhat. — which does not belittle Lincoln’s accomplishments, merely adds a bit for factual patina to the man.
Correction Dave the Wave – Mary Todd Lincoln was her name – not Martha! My bad.
It’s hard to tell if Lincoln was gay because society has changed so much. In the Victorian era, very close non-sexual relationships between two people of the same gender were normal. The Romantic Friendship was such a relationship. They would hold hands, hug, kiss, share a bed, even write flowery letters to each other. If people today saw this today they’d think “Are those two together?”
Yeah sure a lot of straight guys shared beds back in the 19th century, but im pretty sure that some of those guys that were sharing beds, were not getting a lot of sleep.
Mary Todd would probably be diagnosed as bi-polar today, but the ammount of grief she endured in her life, was pretty epic, murdered husband, only one of her four sons lived to adulthood, and even then, he had her thrown into an asylum, because she bought, with her own money, a brand new silver set, when her old one was perfectly good, as well as having the audacity to have a black woman as her closest friend and confidant.