Lincoln's Dilemma

This four part documenatry about Lincoln and his military and political objectives to keep the Union together and ultimately emancipate the slaves and pass the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution is immensely entertaining and enlightening. It is also well crafted, using various photogrpahic techniques combined with narratives provided by historians with varied backgrounds. Lincoln had to weave his way through a complex set of problems, dealing with military setbacks, political pressures from abolitionists, Southern sympathizers, and citizens cool to the idea of emancipating the slaves at the expense of prolonging the Civil War. Lincoln kept an open mind, listened to intellectuals like Frederick Douglas, and finally found a general who could win battles, and provide the political capital to achieve emancipation, renunite the country, start on a path to reconstruction, and pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The series also covers two other facets of the aftermath of the Civil War: the backlash against reconstruction, and rebuilding the image of the Southern insurrectionists and basically trying to rewrite the history of that period, including the building of monuments all over the South to glorify the leaders of the insurrection. This is a series that all American's should watch to get a better understanding of how the history of that era still affects us today.

A quick google search and reading a few books on Lincoln will confirm much of what is in the documentary. Lincoln was a complex man. He was a politician caught up in the precipice of saving the Union. What did that mean? He finally did the right thing...and emancipated the enslaved. Unfortunately the people who need to watch this won't and instead downgrade this documentary.

Realistically, showing 21st century protesters successful removal of a statue of Lincoln is a disservice to the memory of the person who was most responsible for holding the union together and ending the practice of slavery in the United States.

The digs at Lincoln were strange. Frankly, Abraham Lincoln is one of the great leaders in American history and this series' message was along the lines of "Lincoln was good but wasn't enough, his ideology was flawed''.

...which once again is a huge disservice to President Lincoln and is a bit obtuse because some of the people are holding him to a 21st century ethic. Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809, he died in 1865.

Not you, not me, not anyone reading this; has done more to benefit the United States of America and its people in the last 160 years... this series could have given credit when it's due instead of making it seem like Lincoln should've been divine and omnipotent.

To open with people at the Capitol building who were contesting the results of the 2020 election in an Abraham Lincoln documentary is out of context. It had nothing to do with Lincoln, and was inappropriate in my opinion. I'm glad I kept watching however as I did see photos and quotes I hadn't heard about Lincoln before. My rating would've been much higher if the opening scene wasn't so out of place.

This documentary is well done, educational, and illuminates a Black perspective on Lincoln and the American Civil War. I highly recommend this series, although it may be disturbing to people who have never gotten an unbiased education in history.