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THIS Thursday, February 12th, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Barack Obama’s frequent acknowledgement of Lincoln as a source of inspiration and guidance has meant that in recent months America’s 16th president has got a lot of press.

Some of this commentary has been conventionally laudatory, citing Lincoln’s humble beginnings, his opposition to slavery, his honesty and idealism. But a balancing viewpoint has also been aired – that Lincoln was very much a man of his times, with a white vision of the United States that did not grant true equality to African-Americans, brought against their will to America, or to Native Americans, who were there thousands of years before white colonisation.