Stacy Pratt McDermott - Mary Lincoln: Southern Girl, Northern Woman

http://www.routledge.com/cw/historicalamericans

First published 2015

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McDermott, Stacy Pratt. Mary Lincoln: southern girl,

northern woman/Stacy Pratt McDermott.

pages cm. (Routledge historical Americans)

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Lincoln, Mary Todd, 1818-1882. 2. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865Family.

3. Presidents spousesUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

E457.25.L55M385 2015

973.7092dc23

[B]

2014030118

ISBN: 978-1-138-78680-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-78681-3 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-76705-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo and Scala Sans

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Without the encouragement of my mentor and friend Orville Vernon Burton, I never would have tackled a biography of Mary Lincoln. His unfailing faith in my abilities as a writer and historian has sustained me since my first days in graduate school at the University of Illinois.

In my life, I am fortunate to have amazing, devoted and supportive family and friends. Without them, I am a just a lonely and crazy woman. I love you all: Kevin McDermott, Savannah McDermott, Mackenzie McDermott, Marie Pratt and Mike Pollard, Dianne and Bill McDermott, Tracy Pratt and Jason Wavering, Zoe Wavering, Dave McKinney, Maureen McKinney, Alicia and Kurt Erikson, Sandra Mutman and Pat Doyle, Christi Parsons and Cody Moser. Also, thanks and puppy love to Pepper, my fluffy Pomeranian, who sat on my lap during the long writing marathons.

Every day in my capacity as the assistant director and associate editor at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, I am buoyed by amazing friends and colleagues. For their encouragement and good-natured teasing, I am grateful to them all: Daniel Stowell, Carmen Morgan, Marilyn Mueller, Daniel Worthington, Christian McWhirter, David Gerleman, Kelley Clausing, Boyd Murphree, Ed Bradley, Kathryn Harris and Ronda Schappaugh.

Mary Lincoln was born in 1818 in Lexington, Kentucky, into an affluent, slave-holding family, and she died in 1882 in Springfield, Illinois, the widow of a martyred president. She was a spirited, educated and cultured Southern daughter who grew up to be a strong-willed, politically opinionated, Northern political wife. The life experiences between Southern girl and Northern woman transpired during the unpredictable decades of the nineteenth century and shaped the worldview, guided the choices and defined the character of this most controversial First Lady. Mary Lincolns life was a life of extremes and bitter ironies. The institution of slavery had been the foundation of her privileged upbringing, and the abolition of the institution of slavery became the foundation of her husbands presidency. The lively and divisive party politics of her era was a great joy of her life, yet ultimately it was a factor leading to her greatest heartbreak. After a lifelong personal pursuit of love and acceptance, she died in a darkened room without children or grandchildren around her to provide the private comfort that may have helped her come to terms with the sorrow she endured until she took her final breath.