"Serving the Lord and Abe Lincoln's Spirit”: Lincoln and Memory in the WPA Narratives

My paper explores how former slaves remembered Abraham Lincoln in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) narratives conducted between 1936 and 1938.  Former slaves mentioned Lincoln in approximately one-tenth of the more than 3,000 interviews conducted.  In most of these references, former slaves praised Lincoln for his role in emancipation, often contrasting him with Jefferson Davis.  Two classes of comments by former slaves, however, deviate from this model.   In the first, former slaves criticized Lincoln, parroting Lost Cause mantras.   In the second, former slaves claimed to have seen Lincoln in person.  In these false memories of Lincoln, former slaves often claimed that he appeared as a shadowy figure who visited their plantation at night.  My paper seeks to elucidate these beguiling comments in light of African American political thought and Southern historical memory, arguing that these contrasting views of Lincoln reflect deep divisions among African Americans about the long legacy of the Civil War and emancipation.