What If Lincoln Hadn't Been Shot?

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's the biggest 'What if?' in American history: What if Lincoln hadn't been shot? The assassination could so easily have failed and things went so wrong in the aftermath (looking at you Andrew Johnson). Could Reconstruction have looked different with Abraham Lincoln at the helm?

Don's guest is friend of the pod Aaron Sheehan-Dean, professor of history at Louisiana State University.

Edited by Tim Arstall, produced by Freddy Chick. The Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Abraham Lincoln used to joke that his bed was one of the few places in the White House
0:09.2	he could find peace, although he would always check underneath at night in case a particularly
0:14.1	persistent senator was hiding there. As darkness fell on the night of April 14, 1865, that bed lay empty.
0:23.7	Lincoln and his wife Mary were on the town, attending a performance at Ford's Theater.
0:29.1	At some point, though, a White House guard entered the room, carrying in his arms the Lincoln's youngest son, Tad.
0:37.4	Tad was a fitful sleeper, often ended up in his father's bed.
0:41.8	On this night, Tad was settled down, tucked in, and left there to fall asleep, safe in the knowledge that his father, President Abraham Lincoln, would soon come home.
0:51.8	We all know the truth of what happened next, that deeper darkness,
0:55.6	the country, would be plunged into that night. But what if it hadn't happened? What if Abe and
1:01.6	Mary had simply returned and found their boy asleep, as so often happened, with Abe trundling him
1:08.2	into his lanky arms and carrying him back to his room.
1:11.4	Such a poignant parental act, but suggestive of so much more.
1:16.1	If Lincoln had come home, would the United States still have gone through the nightmare
1:21.5	years of reconstruction? Could Lincoln have found a way to truly heal the nation?
1:31.0	Or were the divisive issues beyond even his persuasive powers to put back together a people so broken apart?
1:50.4	Hello, it's Don Wildman here. Glad you're listening to American History Hit. Thanks for joining us.
1:56.3	Where the civil war is concerned, questions abound and counterfactuals are intriguing.
2:20.1	What if the South hadn't seceded? What if Robert E. Lee had fought for the Union? What if Confederates had occupied D.C.? On this series, we've asked a few of those very prickly questions. Please consult the archive. But there is one kudawooda that's especially poignant and painful. What if Abraham Lincoln hadn't been shot? What if on the night of April 14th,
2:26.7	1865, he and his wife, Mary, had attended the theater, enjoyed the play, been applauded by the grateful gathering, and simply returned to the White House and gone to bed? What if on April 15th,
2:32.8	Lincoln awoke to begin the work reconstructing the nation
2:36.0	he had saved from its own demise? It hurts the heart to consider the spared life of a great man,
2:42.2	never mind how our ruptured nation might have been healed in the hands of a leader more determined,
	...

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