Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Was Abraham Lincoln Black? His own political enemies were asking it in 1864, a physician named Doctor Leroy Vaughn asked it again in 2002, and a 2015 DNA study gets cited as the case-closer. Today we walk through the records and find out whether that DNA test actually closes the case, or whether the door is still wide open.
0:00 Teaser & Opening Hook
0:40 Introduction: The Blank Record & 3 Core Questions
2:36 Part 1: Lincoln's 1859 Autobiography & "Second Families"
4:07 Lincoln’s Description of Himself
4:23 Eyewitness Accounts: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1862)
5:01 Eyewitness Accounts: Edward Dicey (1863)
6:20 Nancy Hanks Lincoln & The Silence of 1865 Interviews
8:08 Post-Civil War Climate & Fear of Stigmatization
8:52 William H. Herndon’s 1889 Biography
9:36 The Illinois Wagon Ride: The Virginia Planter Story
12:45 The Scripps Campaign Biography & The Secret Lineage
14:57 Part 2: 19th-Century Campaign Attacks & Copperheads
15:18 Charles Chauncey Burr & The Old Guard (1863)
16:19 The 1864 Election & "Abraham Africanus I" Pamphlets
17:21 The Lincoln Catechism Attack Material
18:04 The Miscegenation Ball Cartoon & Hoax Pamphlet
20:09 J.A. Rogers: "The Illegitimate Son" Hypothesis
21:27 Dr. Leroy Vaughn: Five Black Presidents & Lucy Hanks Theory
24:08 Part 3: The 2015 DNA Study & Colleen Fitzpatrick
25:21 Haplogroup X1c: Maternal Line Results Explained
26:19 Roberta Estes Melungeon Study & mtDNA Limitations
27:26 The Unknown Grandfather: Half of Nancy’s DNA Missing
28:22 The Paternal Line & The End of the Lincoln Y-DNA
29:20 Summary of Primary Sources & Missing Records
31:16 The 1858 Charleston Debate Statement
31:58 Frederick Douglass’s 1876 Memorial Speech
33:37 The Shape of American History: Legal Racial Lines & Silences
34:35 Conclusion: The Open Door & Why It Matters
36:02 Outro & Patreon
SOURCE LIST:
LINCOLN'S OWN WORDS
Lincoln at the Fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Charleston IL, Sept 18, 1858
Lincoln to Jesse Fell, autobiographical letter, Dec 20, 1859. Library of Congress
CONTEMPORARY OBSERVERS
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Chiefly About War Matters," Atlantic Monthly, July 1862 (Lincoln passage restored in the 1883 Riverside Edition)
Edward Dicey, Six Months in the Federal States (Macmillan, 1863). Modern ed.: Spectator of America, ed. Herbert Mitgang: abebooks.com/9780812901771/Spectator-America-Edward-Dicey-0812901770/plp
1863-64 COPPERHEAD & DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN ATTACKS
Charles Chauncey Burr, ed., The Old Guard magazine, 1863-70
Abraham Africanus I (J.F. Feeks, NY, 1864): archive.org/details/abrahamafricanus00delm/page/n1
The Lincoln Catechism (J.F. Feeks, NY, 1864). Harvard, Nolen Collection of Lincolniana: wayback.archive-it.org/5456/20180606132025/http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/lincoln
Miscegenation pamphlet (anon., attributed to David Goodman Croly), NY, 1864
"Miscegenation Ball at the Headquarters of the Lincoln Central Campaign Club," Bromley & Co. lithograph, NY, 1864. LoC Prints & Photographs
POST-ASSASSINATION TESTIMONY & BIOGRAPHY
Frederick Douglass, "Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln," Freedmen's Memorial dedication, Washington DC, April 14, 1876
Herndon & Weik, Herndon's Lincoln, 3 vols. (Chicago, 1889)
Wilson & Davis, eds., Herndon's Informants (U. of Illinois Press, 1998)
MODERN SCHOLARSHIP ON LINCOLN'S ANCESTRY
J.A. Rogers, Sex and Race series (1940-44); World's Great Men of Color (1946-47)
Leroy Vaughn, MD, Black People and Their Place in World History (2002)
Aysha Hussain, "Obama Won't Be First Black President," North Dallas Gazette, Jan 15, 2009: northdallasgazette.com/archives/2009/01-15-09_edition.pdf
Kaleena Fraga, "Was Abraham Lincoln Black?" All That's Interesting, 2022: allthatsinteresting.com/was-abraham-lincoln-black
ADDITIONAL ARCHIVES
Smithsonian NMAH: https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_325557
Gilder Lehrman Collection: gilderlehrman.org/collection/glc08632
GENETICS
Estes et al., "Melungeons: A Multi-Ethnic Population," Journal of Genetic Genealogy (2012)
Nancy Hanks Lincoln mtDNA Study (Fitzpatrick et al.), Oct 21, 2015. Family Tree DNA Hanks Project
Lincoln sources
wayback.archive-it.org/5456/20180606132025/http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/lincoln
abebooks.com/9780812901771/Spectator-America-Edward-Dicey-0812901770/plp
https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_325557
gilderlehrman.org/collection/glc08632
archive.org/details/abrahamafricanus00delm/page/n1
FOLLOW ME 📸
► YouTube: / @NYTN
► Facebook: / facebook.com/findinglolafilm
► Website: nytonashville.com
► X: / twitter.com/ImFindingLola
*Amazon links are affiliate links. If buy something through these links, we may earn affiliate commission. Thank you for supporting this project!
Was Abraham Lincoln Black? His own political enemies were asking it in 1864, a physician named Doctor Leroy Vaughn asked it again in 2002, and a 2015 DNA study gets cited as the case-closer. Today we walk through the records and find out whether that DNA test actually closes the case, or whether the door is still wide open.
0:00 Teaser & Opening Hook
0:40 Introduction: The Blank Record & 3 Core Questions
2:36 Part 1: Lincoln's 1859 Autobiography & "Second Families"
4:07 Lincoln’s Description of Himself
4:23 Eyewitness Accounts: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1862)
5:01 Eyewitness Accounts: Edward Dicey (1863)
6:20 Nancy Hanks Lincoln & The Silence of 1865 Interviews
8:08 Post-Civil War Climate & Fear of Stigmatization
8:52 William H. Herndon’s 1889 Biography
9:36 The Illinois Wagon Ride: The Virginia Planter Story
12:45 The Scripps Campaign Biography & The Secret Lineage
14:57 Part 2: 19th-Century Campaign Attacks & Copperheads
15:18 Charles Chauncey Burr & The Old Guard (1863)
16:19 The 1864 Election & "Abraham Africanus I" Pamphlets
17:21 The Lincoln Catechism Attack Material
18:04 The Miscegenation Ball Cartoon & Hoax Pamphlet
20:09 J.A. Rogers: "The Illegitimate Son" Hypothesis
21:27 Dr. Leroy Vaughn: Five Black Presidents & Lucy Hanks Theory
24:08 Part 3: The 2015 DNA Study & Colleen Fitzpatrick
25:21 Haplogroup X1c: Maternal Line Results Explained
26:19 Roberta Estes Melungeon Study & mtDNA Limitations
27:26 The Unknown Grandfather: Half of Nancy’s DNA Missing
28:22 The Paternal Line & The End of the Lincoln Y-DNA
29:20 Summary of Primary Sources & Missing Records
31:16 The 1858 Charleston Debate Statement
31:58 Frederick Douglass’s 1876 Memorial Speech
33:37 The Shape of American History: Legal Racial Lines & Silences
34:35 Conclusion: The Open Door & Why It Matters
36:02 Outro & Patreon
SOURCE LIST:
LINCOLN'S OWN WORDS
Lincoln at the Fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Charleston IL, Sept 18, 1858
Lincoln to Jesse Fell, autobiographical letter, Dec 20, 1859. Library of Congress
CONTEMPORARY OBSERVERS
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Chiefly About War Matters," Atlantic Monthly, July 1862 (Lincoln passage restored in the 1883 Riverside Edition)
Edward Dicey, Six Months in the Federal States (Macmillan, 1863). Modern ed.: Spectator of America, ed. Herbert Mitgang: abebooks.com/9780812901771/Spectator-America-Edward-Dicey-0812901770/plp
1863-64 COPPERHEAD & DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN ATTACKS
Charles Chauncey Burr, ed., The Old Guard magazine, 1863-70
Abraham Africanus I (J.F. Feeks, NY, 1864): archive.org/details/abrahamafricanus00delm/page/n1
The Lincoln Catechism (J.F. Feeks, NY, 1864). Harvard, Nolen Collection of Lincolniana: wayback.archive-it.org/5456/20180606132025/http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/lincoln
Miscegenation pamphlet (anon., attributed to David Goodman Croly), NY, 1864
"Miscegenation Ball at the Headquarters of the Lincoln Central Campaign Club," Bromley & Co. lithograph, NY, 1864. LoC Prints & Photographs
POST-ASSASSINATION TESTIMONY & BIOGRAPHY
Frederick Douglass, "Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln," Freedmen's Memorial dedication, Washington DC, April 14, 1876
Herndon & Weik, Herndon's Lincoln, 3 vols. (Chicago, 1889)
Wilson & Davis, eds., Herndon's Informants (U. of Illinois Press, 1998)
MODERN SCHOLARSHIP ON LINCOLN'S ANCESTRY
J.A. Rogers, Sex and Race series (1940-44); World's Great Men of Color (1946-47)
Leroy Vaughn, MD, Black People and Their Place in World History (2002)
Aysha Hussain, "Obama Won't Be First Black President," North Dallas Gazette, Jan 15, 2009: northdallasgazette.com/archives/2009/01-15-09_edition.pdf
Kaleena Fraga, "Was Abraham Lincoln Black?" All That's Interesting, 2022: allthatsinteresting.com/was-abraham-lincoln-black
ADDITIONAL ARCHIVES
Smithsonian NMAH: https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_325557
Gilder Lehrman Collection: gilderlehrman.org/collection/glc08632
GENETICS
Estes et al., "Melungeons: A Multi-Ethnic Population," Journal of Genetic Genealogy (2012)
Nancy Hanks Lincoln mtDNA Study (Fitzpatrick et al.), Oct 21, 2015. Family Tree DNA Hanks Project
Lincoln sources
wayback.archive-it.org/5456/20180606132025/http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/lincoln
abebooks.com/9780812901771/Spectator-America-Edward-Dicey-0812901770/plp
https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_325557
gilderlehrman.org/collection/glc08632
archive.org/details/abrahamafricanus00delm/page/n1
FOLLOW ME 📸
► YouTube: / @NYTN
► Facebook: / facebook.com/findinglolafilm
► Website: nytonashville.com
► X: / twitter.com/ImFindingLola
*Amazon links are affiliate links. If buy something through these links, we may earn affiliate commission. Thank you for supporting this project!
