"ROOT, HOG, OR DIE”

Abstract

The American proverb, “root hog or die,” though popular in the early nineteenth century, gained widespread use after President Lincoln used it at the Hampton Roads Conference. Newspapers across the country then published contradictory anecdotal accounts of how Lincoln had used the proverb, incensing the citizenry of both Northern and Southern states. The proverb then became a contentious political rallying cry used frequently in the racially charged rhetoric of the Re-construction Era.

Keywords

• American Proverbs
• Abraham Lincoln
• U.S. Civil War
• Reconstruction Era
• political rhetoric
• Wellerisms