“The Ballad Of Nancy Hanks”

Manteo Has “The Lost Colony”... Rutherford County Has “The Ballad Of Nancy Hanks”

Editors Note: Once again, the play “The Ballad Of  Nancy Hanks” was performed by the Rutherford Community Theatre.This time, it was presented at Concord Baptist Church. This made it a special event, because it is claimed that Concord Baptist is where Nancy Hanks attended and took her son, little Abraham. It is claimed that Bostic is where he was born. The mystery of  Abraham Lincoln’s birth still continues to this day. This article is offered as a suggestion which could benefit Rutherford County. The play is both interesting and well done.

    “The Lost Colony” America’s longest running outdoor drama, located on Roanoke Island has endeared itself to the founding of our country. The play is an ongoing event that surrounds itself in mystery.

     “The Ballad Of Nancy Hanks” is also a play which projects the mystery of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States. It is of historical note and the question of who Lincoln’s father was, and where he was born, still invokes debate among historians and lovers of this special man.

     While not as big, nor very well established, “The Ballad Of Nancy Hanks” could be to Rutherford County what “The Lost Colony” is to Dare County. It definitely is a venue which offers pride and major historical note to anyone who cares.     

     The original script by Shelby playwright Ludy Wilkie with original music composed by Peter Strickland weaves a tale of Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. She becomes the mystery lady who bears a boy child and never specifically tells who the father is of this little boy she names Abraham. Several men are involved in her life. She is bound out to Abraham Enloe and also meets a variety of men of note who now are considered to possibly be her son’s father. Among those in addition to Abraham Enloe - John C. Calhoun, Richard Martin and others. The claims became more abundant as the man became President and a giant of history. At that point, everyone wanted to claim relationship.  

     “The Ballad Of Nancy Hanks” is a major contribution to the Rutherford County, North Carolina heritage. To more clarify the situation, and the accounts of Lincoln’s birth, Lincoln’s only living son may be the big conspirator. Combine the fact that he enjoyed being a Lincoln and not an Enloe or other by name, with Abraham Lincoln himself, who was very clever. It very well could be that Lincoln knew that no man, who was proven to be a bastard child, could fulfill the ambition of a politician. At the time he would simply be rejected. Therefore, Lincoln himself may have laid the ground work to eliminate and hide his true parentage.

     Thus, the play is situated in the local belief that Lincoln was definitely born in Rutherford County. Also, that Abraham Enloe persuaded Thomas Lincoln to marry Nancy Hanks who had a boy child. Lincoln himself supposedly told a man in Chicago that: “I go by Lincoln, but my real name is Enloe”. We also know that Robert Lincoln suppressed a book written by Lincoln’s law partner and biographer, William Henry Herndon, had his mother committed to an insane asylum, and the Lincoln Bible has all the front pages of record keeping torn out. Robert was also caught, after the assassination of the President, burning his father’s private papers. He reportedly said: “History has judged him and I’m not about to change it.” It all lends proof to the fact that the truth would never be told.

     The play “The Ballad Of Nancy Hanks” is very good and is based on the ongoing mystery of who is really the father of Abraham Lincoln. It is intriguing and based on facts and possibly some here-say. It also embraces a great part of our American history. The play is most deserving of an ongoing annual performance which could be and should become a part of Rutherford County. Perhaps it even could be performed annually on the grounds of Concord Baptist Church where Nancy Hanks reportedly attended and baptized her young son, Abraham. This is where the current performance was presented and, once again, enjoyed by me. The Rutherford Community Theatre is to be congratulated for keeping this artistic work alive. It’s reward should be a permanent and an annual part of Rutherford County’s events.

     Tourists and North Carolina residents alike could be drawn to Rutherford County. It could be an annual benefit the county not only needs, but deserves.