High School Freshman Wyatt, who lives with his parents in the ‘Lincoln Slept Here Bed and Breakfast’ in small-town Lincolnville, Oregon HAS A SECRET. He’s about to discover an even bigger secret that will change everyone’s life around him, including his best friend, Mackenzie.
Content Advisory:
QUEER AS A FIVE-DOLLAR BILL is intended for listeners (and readers) ages 13 and up. The main character experiences moments of bullying and homophobia – as well as support and pride – on a journey that’s life-changing and empowering.
Additional Links:
Download the evidence that Abraham Lincoln was in love with another man: the Lincoln Chapter of NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY at https://www.leewind.org/
If you’re in crisis and need to talk with someone, reach out to the great folks at the Trevor Project: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
You can also call them at 1-866-488-7386 or text them at 678-678
Sources for this chapter:
The Lincoln quote Wyatt uses in his video is from a letter Abe wrote Joshua Fry Speed on August 24, 1855. That’s more than thirteen years after their flurry of correspondence surrounding Joshua’s marriage to Fanny in February 1842. You can find the letter on pages 64-67 of Joshua Fry Speed: Lincoln’s Most Intimate Friend by Robert L. Kincaid, Department of Lincolniana, Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee 1943. (Yes, that’s the book Wyatt gets for his book report later… Hey, I’m an author and I liked how it foreshadowed Wyatt’s discovery to come!) The full quote is:
“I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.” When it comes to this I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”
That same letter is also online at http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/speed.htm and on page 323 of Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 2, Abraham Lincoln Association, Springfield, Illinois, 1953, which is where I imagine Wyatt found it.
Lincoln’s most famous statement about “all men are created equal” may be from his 1863 “Gettysburg Address,” which opens with these famous words: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that ‘all men are created equal.’” You can see the actual handwritten speech at the National Archives website, here: http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=36#
In that Gettysburg Address, Lincoln quotes “All men are created equal” from the founding document of the United States of America, our Declaration of Independence. The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence begins, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” You can read a transcript of the Declaration of Independence online here: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
Credits:
This episode of QUEER AS A FIVE-DOLLAR BILL: THE PODCAST was written, produced, and edited by Lee Wind. Lee is the author of QUEER AS A FIVE-DOLLAR BILL and NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY?, among other titles for kids and teens.
You can contact Lee at leewind@roadrunner.com
The QUEER AS A FIVE-DOLLAR BILL audiobook, including the chapter heard in this episode, was narrated by Michael Crouch.
The podcast theme music is by Doug Pettibone.
Our creative consultant is Matthew Winner.
