Prepare for some ‘183-year-old tea’: Abraham Lincoln shared a bed with a man for four years
Was Abraham Lincoln gay? (Getty/Creative Commons)
A new documentary has claimed that Abraham Lincoln may have been gay and had relationships with several men during his life.
Rather than explore his well-documented political career, Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln, explores the personal life and sexuality of the 16th US president.
The film, directed by Shaun Peterson, features interviews with scholars and historians as well as offering never-before-seen photos and letters that detail Lincoln’s relationships with men, most notably businessman Joshua Speed.
Peterson claims that Speed, who co-owned a general store, and Lincoln shared a bed for four years between 1837 to 1841, suggesting that Lincoln was gay or bisexual.
The documentary also claims that Lincoln fell into “the period of his darkest depression” after finding out through the local paper that Speed was selling his store, moving out of their shared home, and moving back to Kentucky to take over his mother’s farm.
This left Lincoln “devastated” and sent him into a “suicidal depression”, the documentary claims.
“They established a kind of suicide watch. His friends removed his razor kit and any other sharp objects, like a knife. And he wrote to his law partner: ‘I am the most miserable man living’.”
Lincoln was an attorney in Illinois when he and Speed were believed to be in a relationship, and they split up 20 years before the Republican was elected president. He went on to marry Mary Todd in 1842 and they had four sons, but it is widely known that he was plagued by periods of depression throughout his life, even while in the White House.
People magazine’s tweet about the documentary earlier this week led to some witty comments about Lincoln’s supposed sexuality, even though the labels gay and bisexual did not exist in the early and mid 19th century.
One person said the film was revealing “183-year-old tea”, internet slang for gossip.
Another wrote: “RIP Abraham Lincoln, you would have loved Grindr” while a third labelled him “brat”, referring to Charli XCX’s album of the same name that dominated the internet in the summer.
Lincoln saw his country through a bloody civil war between 1861 and 1865 and is best-remembered for his part in ending slavery in the US and his Gettysburg Address.
He is regarded by many as the greatest president of all time, and was assassinated in Ford’s theatre, in Washington DC, on 14 April 1865, just weeks after being sworn in for a second term.
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