PIECES OF HISTORY: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

With twelve nominations to the Oscars 2013, including Best Picture, Best Director for Steven Spielberg and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln has become the film which everybody is speaking about in the United States right now.

The film depicts the last four months in Lincoln´s life, placing a special focus on the President´s efforts in January 1865 to have the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the House of Representatives.

It was released in the United States last November and is scheduled to be released in Europe in the next few months. Up to this moment, the film has received extensive critical acclaim and it would be a real surprise if it didn´t become the greatest success in the next Academy Awards Ceremony to be held on 24 February.

Let´s talk now about Abraham Lincoln, the historical character, since he is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest presidents in the United States history and one of those whose influence on Western civilization has been more decisive.

Lincoln became the 16th president of the United States in 1861, serving until his assassination in April 1865. His importance soon proved to be very big as he successfully led the country through its most difficult time in history, the American Civil War (1861-1865). He got over all these problems preserving the Union while ending slavery and promoting the economic and financial modernization of the country.


Some Lincoln´s sentences have pervaded public conscience


His most important achievement was to end with slavery, getting its abolition with his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and pushing through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which finally freed all the slaves in the whole country in December 1865.

At the end of the Civil War, Lincoln set as his main objectives the reconciliation and reconstruction of the nation. Unfortunately, he was assassinated by the actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth making it impossible for him to carry out that task.

A. Lincoln is assassinated at Ford´s Theatre in Washington

Lincoln´s name and figure went straight on into the collective memory of all American citizens, being usually ranked by scholars and the public as one of the three greatest  U.S. presidents, along with George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt.




Lincoln´s Memorial, built in the honour of President Lincoln

His sentences and speeches are among the most famous and best-known in history. The Gettysburg Address is one of these speeches which are now iconic, the same as many other things related to Abraham Lincoln are. Here you can listen to it and read its lyrics.