jcbmack Review of Lincoln: Divided We Stand

Lincoln: Divided We Stand (2021)

Entertaining But There are Three Major Inaccuracies

[3/10 · 24 February 2021]

The CNN production Lincoln Divided We Stand offers a nice narrative approach and decent reenactments. However, the show then falters by glossing over too many claims without enough factual support from Lincoln's speeches, letters, and recorded private conversations from his biographers. For example, the claim is made that Lincoln rarely spoke up against slavery directly or wrote about it, but a review of Lincoln's documenred speeches show over 30 speeches that are explicit against slavery. There are dozens of letters as well. Next, the idea of colonialization where Lincoln said he would free slaves to return to Africa; Lincoln never supported forcing Africans to the continent but voluntarily, and also, at that time the idea of rerurning them home was the humane thing to do unlike nowadays, though the rapper Nas did say just that. Finally, the documentary ignores the fact that while Lincoln's ideas do evolve he often voted in favor with abolitiinists and abolitionists were not the ones who ended slavery but anti slavery politucians did.