A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House Paperback – Import, 19 March 2024

Abraham Lincoln was always antislavery, but the debate over his views on racial equality rages on. Christopher Newport University professor Jonathan W. White addresses that by documenting the numerous interactions Lincoln had with African Americans in the White House. Rather than moderate or even conservative by today’s standards, Lincoln’s views on race were quite enlightened for his time. He challenged people to recognize that African Americans were part of “the people” who established the United States and thus fully entitled to the same natural rights. He believed African Americans should be citizens and have the right of consent over their bodies and their lives.White finds that there was an unprecedented welcome mat offered to African Americans who wished to visit the White House and speak with the president. There are the more famous encounters such as three Executive Mansion meetings with Frederick Douglass, who described his first meeting as Lincoln treating him “just as you have seen one gentleman receive another.” That respect and egalitarianism in a time of extreme racism was the norm for Lincoln when interacting with African Americans.The most notorious exception is perhaps the August 1862 meeting with black leaders in which Lincoln lectured about colonization rather than listened. White examines that meeting in depth and argues that one of its purposes – which Lincoln made sure to document with a stenographer – was to quash the fears of white people who would believe his forthcoming Emancipation Proclamation (written but not yet released) was about full equality, an idea that most of the public was not yet ready. But this meeting must be considered both in context of what Lincoln was trying to do and what he was telling African American leaders in less publicized meetings.It is these meetings where White shows us Lincoln’s real racial views. Immediately after the 1862 meeting above, Henry McNeal Turner noted that in his private conversations it was clear that Lincoln really was only for colonization as an option – never compulsory – for those who wanted to start a new life elsewhere. Henry Highland Garnet told his fellow African Americans that “there was not a man living who could do better than the man in the executive chair.” Other lesser-known meetings reiterated Lincoln’s lean toward African American citizenship and rights. Indeed, throngs of African Americans mourned for the first time a president they believed was theirs as well as for whites. White ends with the African American dynamics surrounding the Freedman’s Memorial in Lincoln Park, Washington, DC.This is an exceptional and detailed look at a little discussed and often misunderstood aspect of Lincoln's presidency. The prolific White is known for his extensive research and this book is no exception. It's also eminently readable.

Highly recommended. This is an excellent story about Abraham Lincoln and his views and interactions with black people during his life and throughout his presidency. Lincoln didn’t have a problem with black people. The book cleared up the misconception that Lincoln didn’t want to end slavery and that he was only interested in saving the Union. Lincoln accomplished both during his presidency saving the country and ending slavery. This is an excellent book. I couldn’t put it down.

For those fascinated about American history this book will add to your knowledge base of our countries history. While I don't agree with all the authors conclusions and suppositions...the book provides valuable insights to America's past and enduring history that includes the good, bad, and ugly!

White explores a new angle on a well-known leader whose depth of character, and the challenges he faced in that time, are more fully understood and appreciated as a result of the author's scholarship.