The Lincoln Train

by Maureen F. McHugh

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Alternate History

ebook

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Maureen F. McHugh (born 1959) is a science fiction and fantasy writer.

Her first published story appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1989. Since then, she has written four novels and over twenty short stories. Her first novel, China Mountain Zhang (1992), was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Award, and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. In 1996 she won a Hugo Award for her short story "The Lincoln Train" (1995). McHugh's short story collection Mothers and Other Monsters was shortlisted as a finalist for the Story Prize in December, 2005.

Maureen is currently a partner at No Mimes Media, an Alternate Reality Game company which she co-founded with Steve Peters and Behnam Karbassi in March 2009. Prior to founding No Mimes, Maureen worked for 42 Entertainment, where she was a Writer and/or Managing Editor for numerous Alternate Reality Game projects, including Year Zero and I Love Bees.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Lincoln Train" is an alternate history short story in which President Lincoln was shot but did not die. Rumor has it that Secretary of State William Seward is actually running the government. Former slave owners are being removed from Mississippi and sent to the Oklahoma Territory. One of the people being sent is Clara Corbett, a seventeen year old, who has always accepted owning people as perfectly natural.

This is quite a good story. It won the Hugo Award for best short story and was nominated for the Nebula. The story does not delve deeply into people's character but it does have something important to say about slavery.

[Sue Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very similar to “After the Apocalypse”. Same with idea of chaos, starvation but with a few people to rescue the white southerners from death at the hands of the northern victors.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disturbing alternate-history of retributions against Southerners after the Civil War. Definitely worth reading, but not a pleasant experience.
Online copy:
https://www.shortstoryproject.com/sto...
Audio version also available.

[Morgan Enix · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful alternate history that really makes you think about the importance of human life. It makes you think about whether people who were raised in an environment that led them to participate in looked down upon societal structures or hold unfavorable ideologies are entirely at fault for their beliefs, and if they should be punished as harshly as those who hold those ideas without environmental/ familial influences. This story makes me want to be a better person to those who believe things that I may deem cruel, because it would make me just as cruel as them to treat them badly.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was extremely interesting, with a sympathetic protagonist who, the story argues, does not entirely deserve the sympathy. It's set in the aftermath of the US Civil War, and white populations from the South are being made into refugees, forced at gunpoint onto trains to be taken to camps in the North. Clara, the protagonist, is seventeen and absolutely destitute, having lost both mother and supplies in the stampede at the train station. She's rescued by Quakers, who are saving as many people as they can from camps and starvation through a version of the Underground Railroad, although "as many as they can" is vanishingly few. Clara's so young and alone that it's easy to feel sorry for her, although, as the Quakers point out, she and others like her were slave-owners. The Quakers don't want to fight the evil of slavery with the evil of internment camps, but that doesn't mean that they enjoy helping those who were complicit in human misery and suffering. Is Clara complicit? Their household owned slaves. Technically, those slaves would have belonged to Clara's mother, but Clara's mother has dementia, so responsibility falls on her almost-adult daughter. How much responsibility, and to what ends? It's a really compelling take, and works perfectly as a short story. I think a lot of the punch would be lost if this were longer.

[Jan Priddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alternative history. Very well written, vivid and strong, but not ultimately wonderful to my mind. As if she were trying out the scenario and could not help writing it with stunning power.

This author is amazing . . . I have read two novels and both will stay with me.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the finest alternative history tales told against the backdrop of American Civil War. It succeeds primarily because of brevity, with an uncompromising look at the brutality of war.
Recommended.

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://shortstoryproject.com/stories...

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piercing alternate reality story begging the age old question of who are we? Are we going to be who we are based on conditions or is our true nature not determined on material and social norms?

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neat historical what-if story, told in spare prose, with a feeling for characterization.