Lincoln, Black Bill, and the N-Word (Article 4)
In the preface to my book, “Abraham Lincoln – An Uncommon, Common Man,” I wrote the following paragraph (in part) about Lincoln’s avoidance of racially disparaging language contrary to the common norm of the day.
“I have read numerous quotations by Lincoln with the words Negro, Black, and African, but not one validated quote using the pejorative of Negro or any words intended to be disrespectful.”
I was recently reminded by a reader about an incident in which Lincoln used the pejorative of Negro, often referred to these days as the “N-word” to avoid actually using it. The reader was correct. I should have been more clear in the preface because I was aware of Lincoln’s use of the N-word in a slander trial in 1856.
Lincoln agreed to represent as a plaintiff a man named William “Black Bill” Dungy, a dark skinned Portuguese who had recently married a White woman. The brother of Dungy’s new wife began to tell neighbors that he believed “Black Bill” was a Negro, and as was common with the language of that day, chose to use the N-word, as he re-told his suspicions throughout the community. Lincoln knew there were really two issues at stake; first a slander case against the brother-in-law but, even more important, he needed to avoid a criminal trial for Dungy because it was illegal in Illinois at that time for a Negro to marry a White person and the penalty could be severe, in some cases death!
During the trial for slander, Lincoln repeated, in court, the language used by the brother-in-law and then said, “If the malice of the defendant had rested, satisfied with speaking the words once or twice, my client would have borne it in silence; but when the defendant went gabbling, yes gabbling, about it, then it was that my client determined to bring this suit.”
Lincoln won the slander suit and the brother-in-law was required to pay Dungy $ 600.00 but Lincoln suggested that Dungy agree to only $400.00 as a “gesture of good-will.” The defendant was also ordered to pay all legal fees, and Lincoln asked the Judge and a few other lawyers how much he should charge. He then astounded all of them, including the defendant, when he set his fee at only $25.00 rather than the $100.00 others suggested.
By winning the slander case, Lincoln stated publicly that no other party should bring a criminal case as the point had been made moot in a court of law; and no criminal case against Dungy was ever filed.
Some abolitionists in the 1860′s and other critics of Lincoln from the safe perch in the late 20th century, argued that he should have taken the criminal case to court and attempted to use the subsequent trial (and probable appeals) to change Illinois law. One of Lincoln’s friends later remarked that “I suppose Lincoln didn’t see what good that would do for his client, Mr. Dungy, as a loss would have had terrible consequences for the man and his wife.”
In another irony of history, some of Dungy’s later descendants believed that “Black Bill” was not Portuguese after all. But, thankfully, in today’s world it wouldn’t be a criminal matter in any event.
So, although Lincoln used the N-word in the trial, I still maintain that he did not use such disrespectful language in his conversations among friends or in public discourse, despite its common usage by many people at that time.
William Seward, then a Senator but later Lincoln’s Secretary of State, once told Senator Stephen Douglas that no man who spells Negro with two G’s should ever be President. I don’t believe Abraham Lincoln spelled Negro with 2 G’s, and he became a fine President.
contact the author at gadorris2@gmail.com