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Are the roots of Lincoln's basic sense and identity, and basic attiduted toward slavery and the American Union, truly to be found in his family's experiences in Richmond County with the slave system, the Northern Neck gentry, and the American Revolution? This is a controversial thesis, to be sure-one that will require careful date and verification, more impirical testing, and considerable future scholarship. But it is hoped that the data here presented and interpreted demonstrates that the thesis holds promise. The writer plans to continue his research: both to test the theses, and to see whether the long-missing grandfather of Lincoln can yet be identified.
In this article's introductory section, ten important research-based finding and conlcusions were declinated. Nearly all of them are provocative in their implications and sure to inspire controversy. They may be summarized in condensed forms as follows: research thus far has demonstrated that Lincoln's mother could well have been born, or at least conceived, in Richmond County, Virginia; and for this and the socio-geographical reasons outlined, the veracity of the "Virginia nobleman" legend concerning the paternity of Lincoln's mother is well within the realm of possibility. The research has also clearly demonstrated that, up until twenty-six years before his birth, Lincoln's mother's forebears were, as plantation overseers/employees, disenfranchised tenants, and Revolutionary War soldiers, on the "firing lne" of the great issues with which Lincoln grappled during his presidency and all his life: the problem of slavery, and the struggle for liberty and the American Union.
The writer invites others-borth scholars and lay-people-to join in a quest for the truth conerning this previously unexplored heritage of Abraham Lincoln. At stake is a deeper understanding of the man many consider to be our greatest president. Undiscovered documents held in private collections or attics, or buried between pages of extraneous material could yet shed further light on Lucey Hanks, her family, and the unknown man with whom she produced the mother of Lincoln. Dusty manuscripts or old ragged volumes of letters, journals, diaries, and plantation or store account books may yet provide the definate answers to the questions: WAs Abraham's Lincoln's grandfather a Virginia planter? Was Lincoln's mother born in Richmond County?; and, What did his family's experience in the Northern Neck of Virginia contribute to the great national leader Lincoln was?
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