- it was as if the earth looked at me, dumb, -- no account of lincoln could fail to announce mary todd lincoln. she was a neurotic woman. mary lincoln had a tragic life even before her husband was assassinated, but so did many women of her generation. in my book i set forth examples of behavior that led me to my largely negative assessment of her. particularly interesting of -- collection of these is a little-known work -- honest a, dishonest mary. i -- mary todd lincoln deserves to be pitied more than center, but she behaved very badly indeed. if you but she was a compulsive soccer -- she was a compulsive shopper. not every woman of her era bought 400 pairs of gloves in three months. in 1864 here's what -- here is some of what they'd had for lincoln -- what late ahead -- wet laid -- some of what laid ahead for lincoln. lincoln had not yet promoted ulysses s grant to be his general energy. to this point, every union leader in the army -- everyman of robert heelys powerful army was volunteering to relist for duration of war to fight on, no letter how long it might take. right after leaving this

after abigail, we didn't see support for african americans' until mary todd lincoln. mary grew up in a family of slaves she personally saw the evils of slavery and some of her some of her relatives did free their slaves. her letters. don't outright speak to her support of racial equality, but what her papers do show is that she demonstrated support for emancipation? mary was vilified by both the south for having been a southerner who defected to the north and by the north that didn't trust her but her loyalties were definitely to the union cause and in a larger sense, but also too the emancipated men and women who would face very difficult times as they went from being enslaved to free to free people. during the white house years her dressmaker elizabeth keckley who was a free black woman made her aware of the plight of individuals who had run away from the south during the civil war specially after the emancipation proclamation and married personally contributed her funds to the contraband relief association to help these men and women settle into their new lives. mar

sarah, poke mary todd, lincoln kerry, grant can you tell us about these ladies. >> they stand out wildlymost people can't mention a single presidents wife around, us those three everyone knows. up to say the reason i got interested in those, an editor suggested that i write about a -- the woman who became famous just because of the men that she they married but she said i wanted something more substantial and i started to read short bias of first ladies and i noticed a pattern emerged immediately. almost all of them married. down that is the married man from positions where their families were -- many of the women were better educated than their partners. i want to see why the women married down. one of the things that comes through in these three cases by the way, these women had a certain confidence that i think came partly from the realization that they had a certain class. they were in some ways superior to the men that they married. sarah polk had a very good education. she was in washington quite a while before her president has been became president. she made contact. she didn't m

now there are three notable exceptions in this time period sarah polk, mary todd lincoln and julia grant. he tells us about those three first ladies. yes, they interested me a lot because they did stand out while most people cannot name a single. president's wife around them those three everybody pretty much knows and i just well i have to say that the reason i got interested in doing this book an editor and suggested. i write a book about first ladies and i said i wasn't interested in writing about women who became famous just because of the men they married and she said well, i wanted something more substantial and i started reading short bios of the first ladies and i could see that a pattern emerged immediately almost all of them married down that is they married men from economic positions their families were less well off economically many of the women were better educated than their husbands. so while i could see why the men would marry up why ambitious men would marry up i wanted to see why the women married down and one of the things that comes through in these these three cases

mary todd as a crazy woman. mary todd was at least as sophisticated about politics as lincoln was. mary todd grew up in kentucky near the home of henry clay, the hero statesman for lincoln. she was a friend of clay. she was an aristocrat. lincoln, in marrying mary todd made a very wise political decision. mary todd advised lincoln in every step of his rise through politics. so, without their wives, i think the potential for them rising up would have been very slim. the first time that douglas ever refers to lincoln's in 1847. douglas has moved to rochester, new york and is now a newspaperman, already the most famous black man in the country, virtually a household name. he becomes famous overnight because his autobiography, which is a bestseller, similar to obama. he writes about lincoln in the context of lincoln's term in congress. douglas refers to lincoln as part of a rogues gallery of congressmen who oppose a bill of to abolish slavery in washington dc. why does lincoln oppose this bill? because it deviates from lincoln's vision for ending slavery. lincoln hated slavery. he said

one book coming out in june which is called an american marriage the untold story of mary abraham lincoln and mary todd. and then in october i have another book coming out called emphatically the black man's president abraham lincoln and racially quality. so it's from the latter book that i wish to share a chapter. and the title by the way, emphatically the back black man's president comes from a eulogy. that frederick douglass delivered on june 1st 1865 for lincoln he delivered it in cooper union. perhaps the premiere spot to give a public oration in the united states. and in that speech he said abraham lincoln was emphatically the black man's president. the first to rise above his the prejudice of his time and his country. by inviting me frederick douglass to the white house to consult on public affairs. he was saying i am the president of the black people as well as the white people and i mean to honor their rights as men and citizens. now this speech is not very well known there's it's not in any of the anthologies of douglas speeches including the five-volume set that the yale university press pre

on "a house divided" at the lincoln book shop, the next one is burrlinggame, the story of lincoln and mary todd. 3 p.m. central time, i hope that you will friend us on facebook and we will you'll get e-mails, get your e-mail into our website so you will know what's coming up so that's michael burlingtongame on american mary. and later, timothy smith will come back with the umpteenth time with his book "the siege of vicksburg", the campaign to open the mississippi river. and tim smith is an incisive in his civil war writing. and any civil war buff will enjoy that. june 5th, 3 p.m. central time. i'm so happy to be with you, and we must have some questions from our vast audience, yes? >> very good. well, yeah, there is a vast audience, dan. this seems to be one of our most popular programs, so far. so thank you everybody out there. >> ron. >> thank you, ron for writing a great book. we have a lot of questions and apologies upfront to those of you at home we may not get to everybody's question because boy you really talked yourself this time and good i had the mute on all this time otherwise you wo

mary todd whose very sprightly, intelligent. legally savvy, new henry clay, corrupt with that full cultural and louisville, kentucky. a fellow kentuckian and lincoln was very awkward socially for some reason unless he was given a. things didn't go well at first they brokend then off and he was horribly depressed and his friend joshua took away his razor and he wouldn't come out of his bed and it was terrible and somebody would insult him and there was a challenge and fortunately 19th century duals were complex affairs, you could apologize or somebody could piece so he didn't fight it and there was a good thing. if we lost lincoln, i t can't imagine what this country would be t like. good question. >> here's an interesting one, if you could pick one thing to spend infrastructure money on today, what would it be. >> that's easy for me, it would be healthcare because one of the things they discovered in writing the book backwards is that there are massive inequities in terms of healthcare coverage between communities ofse color and the rest of the country, it is an evenly divided, i live in a county north of thehe city where we have a plethora of goo

mary todd who was very sprightly intelligent, politically savvy. new henry clay. grew up with that whole culture and that louisville, kentucky. : : : >> . >> that that's what happened. he did not fight the dual if we would have lost lincolnine what this country would be like. good question. thank you. >> if you could one thing to spend infrastructure money on what would it be quick. >> that's easy for me. that would be healthcare. because one of the things i discovered in writing the book backwards is there are massive inequities in terms of healthcare coverage with communities of color and the rest of the country. it is very and evenly divided in a county north of the city we have a plethora of really good hospitals but the south side of chicago is not the case there struggling to stay opens why was been the many to say how do they have a broad-based plan everybody gets decent basic healthcare. we need to come up with something as the covid crisis exposes these inequities. it was horrible because some people didn't have access or go into the hospital they were afraid they could not pay for it. this is part of the social infrastructure argument lincoln would have embraced by the equal treatment clause at the very least w