What did Mr. Lincoln enjoy doing?

[Liz Rosenthal]

(06-16-2013 05:48 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(06-15-2013 09:37 PM)Troy Cowan Wrote:  He did not read the popular books of his day.

I have read there is no evidence he ever read Uncle Tom's Cabin. I do not know if this is true. But, if so, I find it a little surprising.

I've read that Lincoln supposedly read something called the "key" to Uncle Tom's Cabin. I don't know what that is exactly, unless it's a guide to the real-life events that the book was based on.

But I think Uncle Tom's Cabin was written for the "masses." People who were already interested in and concerned about the slavery issue probably sought out other forms of information - the abolitionist newspapers, for example, which I understand Lincoln read. Also, there was a book published, from what I can recall, by the abolitionists the Grimke sisters and Theodore Weld, which provided testimonial after testimonial from slaves and others about the horrors of slavery. It's possible that Lincoln read or looked at this volume.

Also, I'm pretty sure that Lincoln read Hinton Rowan Helper's book about slavery, as he referred to it in at least one speech during the late 1850s. When it came to learning about something, Lincoln probably preferred to read the facts rather than a fictional account. If the "key" to Uncle Tom's Cabin did, as I suspect, provide a guide to the real-life events that inspired the story, then it would make sense that Lincoln would have read that rather than the novel itself, as he would have gotten more information from the "key" than from the novel.