The Abe Lincoln in school history books is a myth.
If not for myths then what would people around here have to talk about when it came to the threads about the Southern rebellion? Take this thread, for example. "Lee himself never purchased or owned any slaves." Lee most certainly did, and Douglas Southall Freeman details as much in his biography of Lee. "In fact if you had asked him, he would have told you he was opposed to slavery." Mildly opposed, perhaps. But as late as 1865 he was saying that slavery was the best situation for blacks in the Confederate States. "Lincoln was a realist who would have done just about anything to save the Union, including tossing the constitution out the window, which he frequently did." That's just nonsense. "Two years after emancipation, Lincoln was concocting ways for the black population to be relocated to British Colonies in the Caribbean before he was assassinated." As is that. "What if Lincoln was more of a racist than Lee?" Depends on how you would define it. If you define it by today's standards than everyone back then - Lee, Lincoln, Jackson, whomever - is a stone racist. If you define it by the standards of the times then Lincoln looks pretty good compared with his peers.