Thought-provoking article: "What 'Lincoln' misses and another Civil War film gets right"....

[RVN VET]

18. Jesus, it was over 100 years ago! Lincoln's world was not the 21st Century

But take Lincoln out of the picture, and the 21st century would quite probably resemble the 19th in its view of race.

Does anyone here honestly believe that without Lincoln, the plight of the slaves would have been better and all white people would have automatically been enlightened against racism?

Lincoln's major "flaw" was living in an age that accepted as gospel the notion that white christians were intended to rule the Earth. That he was able to see and feel the basic inhumanity and horrible injustice of slavery is a tribute to his character. That he, himself, might have felt that Africans were inferior to caucasians should come as small surprise -- although his greatness would be that much larger had he seen through the prevailing view. (But, on the other hand, his conception of Africans was of a slave population most of whose people were living in ignorance and dire poverty. Take away the actual slavery, and you can see why Englishmen felt the irish, too, were inferior -- overall -- to themselves, and somehow deserving of starvation. What condemns Trevelyan was his embracing of this notion of inferiority as justification (via God's wrath, for chrissakes) for allowing the Irish to die by the 100's of thousands. What redounds to Lincoln's reputation was his ability to rise above it and fight for justice, even at serious risk to that reputation among his contemporaries.

Sorry for the ramble, but I think it's time that some folks here developed a sense of history so they can better understand how we got where we are (warts and all) and stop condemning people who, given the context of their times, acted heroically and passionately for justice and freedom.