Book Review: Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream

Book Cover Images image of Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream

by Lerone Bennett

    Publication Date: Feb 01, 2000
    List Price: $35.00
    Format: Hardcover, 652 pages
    Classification: Nonfiction
    ISBN13: 9780874850857
    Imprint: Johnson Publishing Company, Inc.
    Publisher: Johnson Publishing Company, Inc.
    Parent Company: Johnson Publishing Company, Inc.

    Read a Description of Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream


    Book Reviewed by Kam Williams


    ’I will say then, that I am not, nor
    have ever been, in favor of bringing
    about in any way, the social and
    political equality of the white and
    black races’’

    ’ Abraham Lincoln -

                Abraham Lincoln has long been the most revered of American Presidents.  Though fondly remembered as ’The Great Emancipator,’ he was the beneficiary of innumerable tall tales spun to shield the populace from the awful truth that he was an avowed racist.  Unfortunately, the chroniclers of history, perhaps intimidated by the uncritically euphoric shadow cast by the Lincoln legend, have heretofore avoided attempting to assess the man honestly and objectively from a proper perspective. 

    Back in 1968 noted historian Lerone Bennett, Jr., author of Before the Mayflower, published a controversial article entitled, ’Was Abraham Lincoln a White Supremacist?’  Most Americans, black and white, were aghast at even the suggestion of such a flaw in a demigod whose image had become synonymous with freedom and racial quality.  In response to the furor created by his article, Mr. Bennett quietly embarked on over three decades of painstaking, scholarly research, closely examining the words and deeds of our 16th President.

    Forced into Glory represents the fruit of Bennett’s labors, and this 652 page biography sets the record straight, exposing the real Abe Lincoln, wart and all.  Virtually every myth gets exploded along the way, as the author uncovers his subject as an insensitive bigot who, for instance, advocated peace while waging a war of ethnic cleansing on Native Americans.

    The reader also learns that ’Honest’ Abe was an inveterate, credit-taking prevaricator who actually enslaved far more blacks than he ever freed. For, it was the 13th Amendment, not the politically expedient Emancipation Proclamation, which actually ended the institution of slavery once and for all. In fact, a remorseful Lincoln himself had labored to limit the scope of his famous decree immediately in the wake of its implementation.                    

                While Lincoln is remembered for having come from humble, log cabin roots, Bennett further informs us that as a young lawyer he had married Mary Todd, an aristocrat who hailed from a family of filthy rich slave owners.

                You might be surprised to know that when Lincoln inherited slaves from his father-in-law, he didn't even consider emancipating them, but rather condemned them further to a life of misery. Yep, he and his wife cashed in on the inheritance by putting their African-Americans up for auction to the highest bidders, utterly unconcerned about the effects of the ensuing separation on their families and friends. Does that sound like the behavior of a ’Great Emancipator’?

                Bennett’s essential thrust is that Lincoln was an oppressor who went out of his way to endorse slavery, including his enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. More precisely, he was a conservative during conditions of clearly intense exploitation. And the book makes a strong case that to be conservative at a time of such extreme oppression is to be an accomplice, especially in the face of a vociferous abolitionist movement.

                To some, it may seem tragic that Forced into Glory knocks a national icon off his pedestal. Perhaps more significantly, it exposes the duplicitous nature of a national philosophy which has made a habit of extreme disassociation between its words and its deeds. Thus, this clarifying opus emphasizes the point that only by owning up to its disgraceful legacy, including Lincoln, can America ever have a chance of eradicating its seemingly indelible stain which started with slavery and still saturates the country’s subconscious.   

    Read Johnson Publishing Company, Inc.’s description of Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream.

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