Do you know what it was like to be LGBTQ in the 1800s? There were no sexual labels. That means that your sexual behavior could not label you. If you were a man hungering after other men, you could invite a man to share your bed and not suffer being labeled either by yourself or others.
Abraham Lincoln shared a bed with Joshua Fry Speed for three years. The two men first met on April 15, 1837, when Lincoln rode into Springfield, Illinois, on a borrowed horse, carrying a pair of saddlebags, two or three law books, and a little clothing. He was 28 and broke. He entered the store of 24-year-old Joshua Speed and inquired about the price of bedding.
Speed quoted his price, and Lincoln confessed that he couldn’t afford it. Speed quickly proposed a no-cost arrangement. “I have a nice room upstairs with a large double bed. You are welcome to share it with me.” Lincoln brightened up, grabbed his saddlebags, and stomped upstairs. A
few minutes later, he returned smiling, announcing, “I have moved in.”
Speed comments in his memoirs that he had never met a more melancholy person than Lincoln. But once Speed offered to share his bed, melancholy transformed into pleasure and smiles.
Lincoln was an upwardly aspiring lawyer from the backwoods, while Speed came from wealth. Abraham and Joshua shared a bed for three years. Was it romantic? Could have been. Still a mystery. Inviting a man into your bed did not necessarily imply sex, although it could end with that and a lifelong romance.
I hope you enjoyed this true story about one of our most beloved presidents in the 1800s. If you did, you would enjoy my series of three books: Pioneers: Loving Men in the 19th Century: Joint Crop, Pilgrim, and Bachelor Marriages.
