Lincoln Movie Accuracy

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There have been many movies made in the history of movies that have been made over a historical figure or a historical event that are either accurate or inaccurate. The movie by Steven Steinberg, “Lincoln,” is not an exception to this point. This movie is about Abraham Lincoln and the thirteenth amendment and what was going on during that time which was the nation’s Civil War. “Lincoln” could be considered to have both accuracies and inaccuracies in Abraham Lincoln’s family, what happened while the thirteenth amendment was trying to be passed, and how the House of Representatives is represented. The four members of the Lincoln family that were shown in the movie (Willie and Edward were not shown as they had passed away as of that time) were …show more content…
In this movie what was happening while the thirteenth amendment was being passed had its accuracies and inaccuracies in saying the events that were going while this amendment was trying to be passed. The biggest accuracy of an event happening during this time would have to be the Civil War and how awful it was getting in the long run. In one scene, President Lincoln is with Ulysses S Grant and to get to the main camping ground they pass a lot of dead bodies since a battle was taken there. The Civil war was a deadly war with about 1,030,000 casualties which included soldiers and civilians and about two-thirds of the people that died, died from diseases ( Nofi). While there were accuracies there were also inaccuracies. One of those inaccuracies was that Mrs. Lincoln was always up on the balcony while the debate and voting for the thirteenth amendment was going on and she even was shown writing down how many more votes were needed for the amendment to pass after each vote for the amendment. In reality, women at that time did not show up to the House of Representatives to tally up votes or just to hear the debate (Holzer). At that time, women were fighting to get their legal rights and be able to vote (National Women's History Museum), but most of them would not go and watch the vote in the House Gallery. Another inaccuracy of …show more content…
One accuracy was that the Speaker of the House, Schuyler Colfax, actually did vote on the passage of the thirteenth amendment (“Schuyler Colfax”). Colfax told the Clerk to say his name so he could vote, which was very unusual for the Speaker to vote on a subject a matter, but in the end, the amendment was passed (“A Century of Lawmaking”). Another accuracy of this film was that the House of Representatives did start to celebrate over the win of the thirteenth amendment some even ended up crying (Foner). One inaccuracy of this film dealing with the House of Representatives was that Thaddeus Stevens did not take the bill because of how it was the County’s new amendment and Steinberg most likely put it in to make Stevens’ relationship with his housekeeper have more of an emphasis (Bradford.) The film “Lincoln” had some inaccuracies and accuracies dealing with the House of
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