Wicked Springfield

Crime, Corruption & Scandal during the Lincoln Era

Erika Holst

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781614234180
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

In the twenty-four years that Abraham Lincoln lived in Springfield, the city saw its share of crime, corruption and scandal, much of it at the hands of Lincoln's law clients and acquaintances. Erika Holst sheds light on these shady characters, from the man being sued for divorce who claimed that he caught his venereal disease from an outhouse to Governor William Bissell, whose near duel with Jefferson Davis almost made him ineligible to hold office. Learn what prompted a congressional candidate- in an election clerked by Lincoln- to shout down his accuser as some 'spindle-shanked, toad-eating, man-granny, who feeds the depraved appetites of his patrons with gossip and slander.' Read the true stories that fed those depraved appetites, drawn from the newspapers Lincoln read and the docket where he practiced law. In these pages, discover the wicked side of Lincoln's Springfield.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Political Brawls
• Chapter 2. Governors’ (Mis)Deeds
• Chapter 3. Sex, Slander and Fighting
• Chapter 4. Slavery in the Emancipator’s Hometown
• Chapter 5. Abraham Lincoln’s Scandal
• Chapter 6. Murder Most Foul
• Chapter 7. Civil War Shenanigans
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• About the Author