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Monday, February 9, 2009

William Johnson

William Johnson was President Abraham Lincoln's black valet. He accompanied Lincoln from Illinois to D.C. and was perhaps the only person to read a draft of the Gettysburg Address before it was delivered. After the two headed back to the capital from Gettysburg they were both struck with smallpox; Lincoln survived, Johnson didn't. The president ordered that Johnson be buried at Arlington Cemetery and that the inscription on his tombstone be:

WILLIAM JOHNSON
CITIZEN

It was important because of the Dredd Scott decision in 1857 which ruled that no black person could be a citizen of the United States.

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