Lincoln: The Untold Story

As Hollywood films about the passage of the 13th Amendment go, Lincoln is certainly the best one ever made! There really aren't any others. I saw it with my sons, sixth and 12th graders in Brooklyn public schools. They loved the film and saw it as an exciting movie about American history. Would they recommend it to other kids, I asked. "Yes," they agreed, "Lincoln is a movie that all students should see."

I agree Lincoln is a great film. But it's not perfect.

The 13th Amendment, a law (stronger than the Emancipation Proclamation) with actual legislative power to end slavery in America, is Lincoln's explosive and learned story. Stephen Spielberg's film accurately portrays President Lincoln's vital concern for the passage of the 13th Amendment by February 1865, two months before the expected Confederacy surrender.

In the film, Lincoln strongly believes that if the war ends, without Congress abolishing slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation may collapse and slavery will resume. The whole story of Lincoln is this: The President can win with his white and black soldiers on the battlefield, but can he win in Congress? If he wins, Lincoln vows to add two more protective amendments (14th and 15th) and begin a lasting Reconstruction, for African Americans and the nation.

New York City Congressman Fernando Wood is portrayed as a hateful Democratic Lincoln enemy, insulting the President as "Africanus" Lincoln, despising blacks, and denouncing the 13th Amendment as anti-American business. As NYC Mayor in 1861, Wood supported Wall Street's substantial interests in the South's slave-dependent "free enterprise" economy, and called, unsuccessfully, for NYC to also secede from the Union. President Lincoln believes that without legislatively eliminating slavery, the South would rapidly re-strengthen itself and crush any opportunities for blacks.

Powerful and convincingly played by Daniel Day Lewis as the president, Lincoln is a tour de force exposition of down and dirty American legislative politics. To achieve liberty for all American men, this Honest Abe is as necessarily deceptive, bribing, and untrustworthy as any bigoted Civil War politician. Lincoln delays an early end to the war (allowing thousands more to die) in order to achieve his great American dream.

Throughout Lincoln, Spielberg does his usual splendid job of adventurous and exciting filmmaking. Black soldiers are prominently represented in battle scenes. Yet, a thoroughly whipped and forlorn Confederate General Robert E. Lee gets a huge Spielberg cinematic break.

On April 9, 1865, 3,500 "colored" Union soldiers stood guard along with white soldiers around the Appomattox Court House. In the film, not one black soldier is anywhere near the Lee surrender. By the end of the Civil War, 179,000 black men served as soldiers in the Union Army, another 19,000 served in the Navy. (I am still recovering from those missing 1,800 black soldiers who landed bravely on D-Day beaches in 1944, but were unseen in Saving Private Ryan). Lincoln is much better in its accounting of black soldier heroism.

Historian Eric Foner, author of the The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, told CNN that the film is a good one, but its narrow focus exaggerates the president's role in ending slavery. "The emancipation of the slaves is a long, complicated, historical process. It's not the work of one man, no matter how great he was." Foner said.

An important historic scene — included in Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Team of Rivals, on which Lincoln is based, but left out of the film — was the second assassination attempt made against the Lincoln administration that Good Friday evening, April 14, 1865. At the very moment Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theater, Secretary of State William Seward lay asleep at home when another assassin (partner to John Wilkes Boothe) plunged a bowie knife at Seward's throat. Seward survived, but his cheek was nearly severed completely off. Vice President Andrew Johnson was said to be a third target that evening, but a last minute decision spared Johnson's life, and likely shaped his post-war legislative anti-black path. Inclusion of the broader assassination plot may help viewers (and citizens) comprehend the aborted Reconstruction, racial hatred and Jim Crow-era, which followed the Civil War.

Some commentators have criticized the film for its absence of black leaders, particularly Frederick Douglass, within the anti-slavery campaign. The film confines President Lincoln to essentially behind-the-scenes deals and clashes with an all-white congress.

For a more comprehensive view of how African Americans participated in their own emancipation, I would recommend the Schomburg Center's exhibition, Visualizing Emancipation, curated by Deborah Willis.

See Lincoln and visit Visualizing Emancipation!

The writer's sons are members of Schomburg Center Junior Scholars. Chris Moore is Senior Researcher and author of Fighting For America: Black Soldiers, The Unsung Heroes of World War II.

Comments

Patron-generated content represents the views and interpretations of the patron, not necessarily those of The New York Public Library. For more information see NYPL's Website Terms and Conditions.

Lincoln: The Untold Story

Mr. Moore is precise and historically knowledgeable. He provides a balanced view of the film and provides extra analysis when he references the invisible African-American soldiers in Saving Private Ryan and the effects of the attempted assassination on President Johnson.

Hello, I just saw the Lincoln

Hello, I just saw the Lincoln movie and was tickled to death to hear Abraham Lincoln in the opening scenes of the movie talking with two black soldiers and ones enlistment at Camp Nelson. This is BIG! at least for a history nerd like me. I can easily recall sitting in my history classes in Loveland and never hearing about black soldiers in the Civil War or even seeing a picture that would have allowed me to believe that people who looked like me were actually fighting for their own liberation rather than simply being viewed as marginal characters on the historical scene and victims totally dependent upon Lincoln and the Republicans for their emancipation. Now with the acknowledgement of Camp Nelson as a place of prominence in the struggle for freedom and liberty WE now have an obligation to seize the opportunity to present our own historical legitimacy in shaping a literary and cultural necessity in offering a different perspective in telling our history through the eyes of our ancestors. I am steadfast in doing the RIGHT thing and redefining heroism to bring additional attention to freedom's struggle on the part of those black soldiers and refugee slaves. I am blessed to tell my family story relating to my gg-grandmother Lucy Sams Ross whose family were fugitive slaves at Camp Nelson and gg-grandfather Bryant Green(e) who enlisted at Camp Nelson as a member of Co. A of the 6th Cavalry of the United States Colored Troops. Thanks again for allowing me to share with you Lucy's Story. Book III of Lucy's story will be released early in 2013 and it's availability will be in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the 1913 flood. The book titled Refuge from the Deluge: On Being Railroaded will also relate the story of the Randolph Freedmen in the Upper Miami Valley of Ohio. The trilogy of Lucy's Story is coming now as ebooks.

Lincoln: The Untold Story

Thank you for your excellent blog about Abraham Lincoln. I just saw the movie and thought that it was terrific. You correctly pointed out that 3,500 "colored soldiers stood guard along with white soldiers around the Appomattox Court House, yet not one was seen in the movie. As was in the film "Saving Private Ryan." This was certainly lazy historical research on the part of Spielberg, in otherwise two great films. Next time, he should get you as consultant for any future films that will involve the historical contributions of African-Americans. I want to point out that there was a Native-American in the film. Although, the actor had no spoken lines, his presence was keenly felt. Native American military contributions in the Civil War and also in the American Revolution are usually overlooked. Lastly, Elizabeth Keckly has her own story to tell. Most viewers have never heard of her. The actress who played Keckly was very subtle. (too subtle if you read the sketchy biography on Wikipedia. Spielberg definitely needs to consult with more knowledgeable historians!) Keckly, a seamstress,sewed all of those elaborate dresses Mary Todd Lincoln wore. (Mrs. Lincoln was not going to let the Civil War stop her from wearing the finest clothes!) Keckly bought her freedom and her son's freedom. A future accurate biography or documentary is in order for Keckly. Spielberg should pass on this one.

First wave

I found this on line just confirming what I suspected... Given the segregated nature of American society at the time of WWII, and of the armed forces, there were significantly fewer Black sevicemen than white ones and they were often relegated to secondary roles. Black sailors could only serve as cooks and mess stewards. Although there were black army combat units, most black units were in support roles such as transport. As a result, there were few, if any, black men who participated in the Normandy landings.