Lincoln's Mom Nancy Hanks--Died Young But Changed the World.

*i have read numerous books on the subject below, each with portions of the following factual recitation, including primary sources such as letters.  I make reference to one of the major sources, an amazing book I recommend to all, in the text below.  The analysis is my own.

     It is likely that not many people have heard of the name Nancy Hanks.  She died in 1818 at the age of 34, leaving behind a husband, Thomas, and two children, a daughter 11 and a son 9.  Like many others at that time in southern Indiana, including various relatives, she died from milk sickness, a malady passed through a cow’s milk after the cow had eaten a poisonous root. (Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone, 26.).    She was a woman who could read but not write, she cooked for the family, mended clothes, and maintained their one room cabin (Donald at 23).  She and her husband had joined the Separate Baptist Church which required adherence to a strict code of morality, including such tenets as no profanity, intoxication, or dancing.  The church was also opposed to slavery.  (Donald at 24).  She purportedly told her children on her death bed in her small, simple cabin in southern Indiana “to be good to their father—to one another and to the world.”  (Donald at 26). 

 Nancy Lincoln’s headstone in Indiana on the grounds of the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial.

     If time were frozen at the time of Nancy’s death and her life analyzed from that perspective alone, it would be fair to say from what we know today that she lived an honorable life, was a good mother and wife, and did the best she could.  She lived an average but good life.  Some have irrationally devalued her life because she was born out of wedlock, a significant issue at the time that even led to legal charges of fornication against her mother.  (Donald at 20.).      

The Pioneer Cementary in Lincoln, Indiana.

     Certainly, her death mattered a great deal to a distraught husband and two young motherless children.  People like much like Nancy die each day around the world and leave sorrow in their wake.  The masses of humanity never become famous and, in reality, little is known or written about most who come and go.  That fact, notwithstanding, their lives mattered to those they touched. 

Thomas and Nancy Lincoln with Sarah and Abraham

     Due to destiny or the wisdom of some unseen hand, Nancy’s impact did not stop when she was buried because her son is now one of the most recognized and admired humans to ever walk the earth.  Nancy was married to a farmer named Thomas Lincoln.  Her son, Abraham had this to say about his mother:  “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.  Nancy Lincoln, an angel in the eyes of Abe Lincoln, only had nine years to affect her son.  In that short time she planted seeds of character, honesty, and goodness in the soul of a man who has had more than 5,000 books written about him.  We don’t know what she looked like, her exact lineage, or much about her personality but we do know that her life mattered to Abe and his life mattered to the world.  He shared his parents' viewpoint noting in his own words that he was “naturally anti-slavery” and, noting in 1864 that “I cannot remember a time when he did not so think, and feel.”  (Donald at 24.). 

           

            Nancy Hanks Lincoln’s life mattered whether she had a son who became president or not.  She was a common woman with an uncommon son.  Those close to her needed her and were shaped by her.  Thankfully for the United States of American and the world she did the best she could with what she had and opened the eyes to an impressionable young boy who seized destiny.

     I conclude with the following poem by the Poet Rosemary Benet entitled "Nancy Hanks"

If Nancy Hanks

Came back as a ghost,

Seeking news

Of what she loved most,

She'd ask first

"Where's my son?

What's happened to Abe?

What's he done?"

"Poor little Abe,

Left all alone

Except for Tom,

Who's a rolling stone;

He was only nine

The year I died.

I remember still

How hard he cried."

"Scraping along

In a little shack,

With hardly a shirt

To cover his back,

And a prairie wind

To blow him down,

Or pinching times

If he went to town."

"You wouldn't know

About my son?

Did he grow tall?

Did he have fun?

Did he learn to read?

Did he get to town?

Do you know his name?

Did he get on?"

Julius Silberger wrote "A Reply to Nancy Hanks"

Yes, Nancy Hanks,

The news we will tell

Of your Abe

Whom you loved so well.

You asked first,

"Where's my son?"

He lives in the heart

Of everyone.