Who is Abraham Lincoln from The America Play, and Other Works and what is their importance?

Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States during the Civil War. He is credited with having the both the moral and political courage to put an end slavery - or to at least initiate the battle that will end it. In the play, Lincoln is regarded as as ambivalent character, who is idolized and viewed as a hero, but who was not necessarily as great a friend to African Americans as history and African Americans tend to give him credit for.