Rethinkin' Lincoln on the 150th Birthday of the Emancipation Proclamation

December 2012

Dear Zinn Education Project friends,

In this month's If We Knew Our History article, Bill Bigelow dispels the popular notion of President Lincoln as "the great emancipator" and illustrates that the real anti-slavery heroes in this story were "the enslaved themselves, along with their black and white abolitionist allies." With the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation upon us, and with the film release of Lincoln, this timely piece punctures myths and stereotypes to present a more accurate and complex story.

The Zinn Education Project's If We Knew Our History series features articles by teachers, journalists, and scholars that highlight inadequacies in the corporate history textbooks that too often find their way into our classrooms. Please consider making a donation to support equipping students with the analytical tools to make sense of----and improve----the world today.

The Zinn Education Project introduces students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula.

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Rethinkin' Lincoln on the 150th Birthday of the Emancipation Proclamation
By Bill Bigelow, curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools and the co-director of the Zinn Education Project

Here's a history quiz to use with people you run into today: Ask them who ended slavery.

I taught high school U.S. history for almost 30 years, and as we began our study, students knew the obvious answer: Abraham Lincoln. But by the time our study ended, several weeks later, their "Who ended slavery?" essays were more diverse, more complex----and more accurate. In coming months and years, teachers' jobs will be made harder by Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln, in which Daniel Day-Lewis gives a brilliant performance as, well, Lincoln-the-abolitionist. The only problem is that Lincoln was not an abolitionist.

Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner chose to concentrate on the final months of Lincoln's life, when, as the film shows in compelling fashion, the president went all-out to pass the 13th Amendment, forever ending U.S. slavery. Missing from this portrait is the early Lincoln----the Lincoln that did everything possible to preserve slavery. Read more.

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"Rethinkin' Lincoln on the 150th Birthday of the Emancipation Proclamation" is the latest article in the If We Knew Our History series published on the Huffington Post. Help us reach a wider audience in three easy steps:

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Check out some of the 2012 If We Knew Our History essays that were published in GOOD, Huffington Post, Common Dreams, and Alternet. These articles reached tens of thousands of people.

2012 articles included:

MARCH
The Real Irish American Story Not Taught in Schools

MAY
Teaching Untold Stories During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

JUNE
Who Stole
Helen Keller?

JULY
Fists of Freedom: An Olympic Story Not Taught in School

OCT.

It's Columbus Day...Time to Break the Silence

Help us continue this series in 2013. Make a donation today to the Zinn Education Project.

Thank you for bringing a people's history to the classroom!

Sincerely,

Lauren Cooper

For the Zinn Education Project