Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln Signed Check to “William Johnson (Colored),” the President’s Valet, Who Accompanied Him to Antietam and Gettysburg

William Henry Johnson was a free black servant who accompanied the president-elect on his journey from Springfield to Washington, D.C., while Lincoln was under threat of assassination. Lincoln’s identification of Johnson as “Colored” would facilitate the latter’s cashing of the check. On arrival in the capital, Lincoln found employment for Johnson stoking the furnace of the…