Mariah Vance, an African-American domestic worker, worked for Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, from 1850 to 1860. Vance was witness to the Lincoln home life unlike any other person outside the family. Her recently published oral history reveals, for the first time, the Lincolns’ often volatile lives and Mary Lincoln’s unquenchable desire for paregoric (opium suspended in camphor and alcohol). Abraham Lincoln’s public life was well-documented, but little is known about his private life.
After leaving the Lincolns, Mariah Vance continued to be a laundress, maid and housekeeper to support her 12 children. Adah Sutton, a Springfield antique dealer, upon hearing of Mariah’s skill and hard work, brought her laundry and listened while Mariah spoke of the Lincolns. Months later, realizing just who Mariah was talking about, Adah took extensive verbatim notes, which were thrown into a box until years later. At age 72, she decided her notes were important enough to make public. These writings reveal an incredible number of personal conversations and details that only a maid could know. There’s a bit of dirt here and there, like when Mrs. Lincoln consults psychics and throws extravagant society parties to impress Springfield’s finest while depleting Abraham’s bank accounts. But mostly the Lincolns were hardworking, God-fearing, extremely loyal people. Lincoln’s common sense prevails in the face of hallucinations and tantrums, resulting from his wife’s paregoric addictions and withdrawals—Mrs. Lincoln acts much like a heroin addict, but with easy and continued access to her “medicine.” GE/CF

Publisher: Hastings House
Hardback: 550 pages
Illustrated