• About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Clarence Moye
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily - The Oscars, the Films and everything in between.
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily - The Oscars, the Films and everything in between.
No Result
View All Result

Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley

by Sasha Stone
January 22, 2013
in News
38

lincoln11

One of the more irritating boils on the ass of this year’s Oscar season is that the moment has afforded the opportunity for all Lincoln haters, critics, truthers to the light of day. Some of the criticisms have been floating around for decades and just now bubble back to the surface. Some of the criticisms are absurd. Those criticisms come flailing at the film Lincoln like so many angry fists of children railing against the wrongs their parents done them. One of the common complaints is the absence of Frederick Douglass. People say this because they not only don’t know who Elizabeth Keckley is but don’t care to find out. In a season where the majority of the films are about men, made by men, Kushner and Spielberg put a landmark African American woman in their script.

Also dragging along behind President Lincoln (because gosh, freeing the slaves, saving the union and taking a fatal bullet in the back of the head just wasn’t enough — that underachiever) is the oft brought up “Lincoln was a racist!” accusation. While it’s true he was no abolitionist, his biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin said he became more so as his presidency wore on. Who knows how his mind would have changed if he hadn’t been killed only a month into his second term. We can’t judge all Americans in 1865 by 2012’s standards. At any rate, though in a subtle fashion (as with most of Tony Kushner’s complex script) it is all summed up so beautifully in this scene:

EXT. THE PORTICO OF THE WHITE HOUSE – A SHORT WHILE LATER

The carriage has pulled up and Mary is entering the White House. Lincoln helps Mrs. Keckley down from the carriage.

She hesitates before proceeding in. Then she faces Lincoln.

  ELIZABETH KECKLEY
I know the vote is only four days away; I know you’re concerned. Thank you for your concern over
this, and I want you to know: They’ll approve it. God will see to it.

LINCOLN
I don’t envy him his task. He may wish He’d chosen an instrument for His purpose more wieldy than the House of Representatives.

ELIZABETH KECKLEY
Then you’ll see to it.

Lincoln looks at her, considering. Then:

LINCOLN
Are you afraid of what lies ahead? For your people? If we succeed?

ELIZABETH KECKLEY
White people don’t want us here.

LINCOLN
Many don’t.

ELIZABETH KECKLEY
What about you?

LINCOLN
I…I don’t know you, Mrs. Keckley. Any of you. You’re …familiar to me, as all people are. Unaccommodated, poor, bare, forked creatures such as we all are. You have a right to expect what I expect, and likely our expectations are not incomprehensible to each other. I assume I’ll get used to you. But what you are to the nation, what’ll become of you once slavery’s day is done, I don’t know.

ELIZABETH KECKLEY
What my people are to be, I can’t say. Negroes have been fighting and dying for freedom since the first of us was a slave. I never heard any ask what freedom will bring. Freedom’s first. As for me: My son died, fighting for the Union, wearing the Union blue. For freedom he died. I’m his mother. That’s what I am to the nation, Mr. Lincoln. What else must I be?

Steven Spielberg is not the one to tell Frederick Douglass’ story but I hope there is a filmmaker out there who is and who will. It is one of the most powerful stories of an American hero.  There are so many great stories to tell from that era about slaves and those were became free. Keckley was one of those. Hopefully the film will, at the very least, alert audiences to who she was.

Tags: Lincoln
Sasha Stone

Sasha Stone

Sasha Stone has been around the Oscar scene since 1999. Almost everything on this website is her fault.

Next Post

Adele will Perform Skyfall at the Oscars

Sign up for Awards Daily's Breaking News

* indicates required

Carey Mulligan, Chadwick Boseman, Chloé Zhao, Nomadland win 2021 BFCA | Critics Choice Awards

Carey Mulligan, Chadwick Boseman, Chloé Zhao, Nomadland win 2021 BFCA | Critics Choice Awards

Carey Mulligan stars as "Cassandra" in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features

by Ryan Adams
March 7, 2021
134

13th Annual Awards Daily Oscar Ballot!

13th Annual Awards Daily Oscar Ballot!
by Ryan Adams
March 7, 2021
1

‘Croods’ Director Joel Crawford Explores Human Connections in ‘A New Age’

‘Croods’ Director Joel Crawford Explores Human Connections in ‘A New Age’

(Photo: Universal)

by Clarence Moye
March 7, 2021
0

Critics Choice Awards Tonight! What to Expect, What They Mean, Why Tho!

Critics Choice Awards Tonight! What to Expect, What They Mean, Why Tho!
by Sasha Stone
March 7, 2021
16

‘Sound of Metal’ Supervising Sound Editor Nicolas Becker On Being a Renaissance Sound Man

‘Sound of Metal’ Supervising Sound Editor Nicolas Becker On Being a Renaissance Sound Man

SOUND OF METAL Courtesy of Amazon Studios

by Megan McLachlan
March 7, 2021
0

When All Hope is Lost, There Is ‘Hope,’ Filmmaker Maria Sødahl Lives to Tell

When All Hope is Lost, There Is ‘Hope,’ Filmmaker Maria Sødahl Lives to Tell
by Frank J. Avella
March 7, 2021
0

‘Mandalorian’ Emmy Nom’d Crafts Use Bleeding Edge Tech To Recreate Vintage ‘Star Wars’ Look and Feel

‘Mandalorian’ Emmy Nom’d Crafts Use Bleeding Edge Tech To Recreate Vintage ‘Star Wars’ Look and Feel

(Photo: Disney/Lucasfilm)

by Clarence Moye
March 7, 2021
0

Breaking Down the Animated Shorts Shortlist

Breaking Down the Animated Shorts Shortlist
by Joey Moser
March 7, 2021
1

Oscar Voters – No Time or Desire to Watch the Movies? Here is a Primer

Oscar Voters – No Time or Desire to Watch the Movies? Here is a Primer
by Sasha Stone
March 6, 2021
33

Daniel T. Dorrance On Designing A Refuge in Billie Holiday’s Dressing Rooms

Daniel T. Dorrance On Designing A Refuge in Billie Holiday’s Dressing Rooms

(Photo: Takashi Seida/Hulu)

by Joey Moser
March 6, 2021
0

Agnieszka Holland Continues to Push Boundaries in ‘Charlatan’

Agnieszka Holland Continues to Push Boundaries in ‘Charlatan’
by Frank J. Avella
March 6, 2021
3

Berlin Dispatch – That’s a Wrap

Berlin Dispatch – That’s a Wrap
by Zhuo-Ning Su
March 6, 2021
1

Predictions Friday: The Producers Guild and the DGA

Predictions Friday: The Producers Guild and the DGA
by Sasha Stone
March 5, 2021
54

Join us Facebook

AwardsDaily Crew

  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Clarence Moye
  • Contact Us

ADTV Crew

  • ADTV Home
  • Megan McLachlan, Co-Editor
  • Clarence Moye, Co-Editor
  • Jalal Haddad, Senior Contributor
  • Joey Moser, Senior Contributor
  • Kevin Dillon
  • Shadan Larki
  • Ben Morris
  • David Phillips

Follow on Twitter

ADTV Twitter

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertising on Awards Daily

© 1999-2021 AwardsDaily.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News

© 1999-2021 AwardsDaily.com