The Lincoln Train

"The Lincoln Train"
"The Lincoln Train"
Maureen F. McHugh
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publication
Published in	The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction; Alternate Tyrants; Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction
Publication type	Magazine
Publication date	April 1995

"The Lincoln Train" is an

Nebula Awards anthologies, in Alternate Tyrants (1997), and in Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction

(2005).

Plot summary

The story follows Clara Corbett, a teen-aged girl from Mississippi who is being forcibly removed from her home following the end of the American Civil War. Clara is from a slave-owning family, and is boarding the train with her mother when the latter suddenly dies. Travelling alone, Clara is approached by Elizabeth Loudon, and they travel together to St. Louis. Clara initially fears that Elizabeth is an adventuress who will kidnap her and take her to parts unknown, but she is a Quaker and a member of an Underground Railroad network that rescues people in Clara's situation. Clara journeys with her, her final destination being her sister Julia's home in Tennessee. As she tries to offer help to the Quakers, however, Elizabeth grows cold and rebuffs her, stating that "there are no slavers in [their] ranks."

Alternate history

The

slaves to the western territories in a neo-Trail of Tears, where many of them are left to die of starvation and disease. The brevity of the story, and the limit of its narrative viewpoint to one young girl in a remote province, do not allow this alternate history

to be examined in any great depth.