Docuseries offers a more complete history of Lincoln's journey to end slavery

Docuseries offers a more complete history of Lincoln's journey to end slavery

Transcript¹

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to directors Jacqueline Olive and Barak Goodman about the Apple TV+ docuseries, Lincoln's Dilemma², and how the fight for emancipation³ was larger than one man.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

We've known Abraham Lincoln as the Great Emancipator⁴, the man who abolished chattel⁵ slavery. A new documentary series called "Lincoln's Dilemma" challenges that idea by presenting a nuanced portrait of a man, a president, full of contradictions.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "LINCOLN'S DILEMMA")

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: He did not start his presidency⁶ to be the Great Emancipator. He wanted to be the great unifier⁷, the person that brought the country back together again.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The phrase the Great Emancipator - it's not a phrase Lincoln asked to be applied⁸ to himself. And we can do better, beginning with the recognition that emancipation began with the emancipated⁹.

FADEL: The series, set against the backdrop of the Civil War, shows how that fight for emancipation was much larger than one lionized man. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass made Lincoln understand the brutality¹¹ of slavery and the humanity of the enslaved. But there are also the countless¹² names and faces of formerly¹³ enslaved people never mentioned, never depicted¹⁴ in history books, who guided him. Directors Barak Goodman and Jacqueline Olive say they want their documentary to lift up the voices of African Americans who guided the president along a path to freedom.

JAQUELINE OLIVE: I was just in an Uber. I was - the Uber driver, I was asking about - I mentioned the series and what I do and asked him what he knew about Lincoln. And he said that Lincoln freed the slaves. And it's just really overly simplistic. There were so many points in history and so much effort by enslaved people for their own freedom. Their very lives depended on emancipation, on ending the institution of slavery. And so what that meant was is that there was this large movement towards actively¹⁵ engaging in their own freedom.

BARAK GOODMAN: And I would just add that as the war went on, Lincoln was not only fighting the South, he was fighting Northern public opinion, who were getting increasingly fatigued¹⁶ with the whole thing. And so during that period of time, there was a critical need for soldiers, for people to fight, and the only people clamoring to fight were African Americans, enslaved - formerly enslaved people. And their example moved Lincoln, personally, towards an appreciation¹⁷ of the humanity of Black people, of the need for complete emancipation. So we have to remember that it wasn't just enslaved people leaving the plantations¹⁸ and coming north. It was their insistence¹⁹ on joining and fighting in the Union cause that really moved the country.

FADEL: One thing that really stuck with me with this series that maybe I didn't fully²⁰ understand myself before was this incredible moral journey. I mean, Lincoln did not come to this great moral decision on his own. But he also - there are moments where, for example, he talks about colonization²¹, if you could get into what that is and what he ultimately was doing in the middle of this war.

GOODMAN: Yes. Lincoln was a man of his times. We forget that in all the sort of hero worship we do around him. He hated slavery, hated what it did to human beings, but he thought that perhaps Black and white people couldn't get along together in the United States as free people. And therefore, the best solution was to colonize²², to ship free African Americans from the United States to a country of their own somewhere - let's say, in Africa or in Central America. And I think it's one of those things that really complicates²³ our views of Lincoln and makes you scratch your head and makes you perhaps pierce the veil of who this man was and understand him more clearly. There were plenty of examples of backsliding, equivocation²⁴, uncertainty²⁵ around the future of African Americans in the United States. And that journey, that moral journey, is at the heart of our series.

OLIVE: It is. And if it wasn't for folks like Frederick Douglass, who, by the way, when Lincoln came into the presidency, was one of the most famous men in America - and Frederick Douglass had just been recently out of slavery himself a few years earlier. And so he understood what colonization meant for Black people who had built a home in this country and who had roots in America and what that meant for the future of Black citizenship²⁶. And so there are these forces that were pulling on Lincoln, and there were times when Lincoln was pulling the country along where he was far more politically progressive than the rest of the country. And so really, what I was excited to create with this series is this ebb²⁷ and flow, this really complicated, nuanced understanding of Lincoln in the times.

FADEL: Yeah. Are there moments that you learned as you tracked his journey and those that helped him arrive, ultimately, to the decisions he made that surprised you, that stuck with you?

GOODMAN: It's really remarkable²⁸ to look back at this era where a president has personal contacts with ordinary people - not lofty, you know, fellow politicians or famous people, but ordinary people - and how those encounters really changed Lincoln. You know, he would ride in his carriage from his residence in - outside Washington, when he wasn't at the White House, the Soldiers' Home. And he would go past these camps where refugee, enslaved people were living, and he would have personal conversations with them. And he was a man who was moved by pain. He had great empathy for people, and I think that's an under-looked-at aspect of Lincoln's life and something that speaks so highly of who he was as a human being.

FADEL: Now, these refugee camps of freed slaves that he'd walk through, they were also called contraband²⁹ camps. So even though he's in these camps, speaking to human beings, still, words for property are the title of the camp.

OLIVE: Yeah, that's the contradictions and the complexity³⁰ of the time - right? - is that there is this - even as - in the midst of this push towards emancipation and abolition¹⁰, there is still not the complete understanding of the full humanity of Black people and the knowledge and the desire for them to become full citizenship. So you have all of these contradictions at play. And that Lincoln navigated³¹ them and ended up as a proponent³² and as instrumental in emancipation is really, I think, quite extraordinary.

(SOUNDBITE OF CARTER BURWELL'S "I WILL CARRY YOU")

FADEL: Jacqueline Olive and Barak Goodman, thank you both so much.

OLIVE: Absolutely.

GOODMAN: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF CARTER BURWELL'S "I WILL CARRY YOU")

FADEL: The four-part docuseries is called "Lincoln's Dilemma." It streams on Apple TV+ tomorrow.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

3 emancipation   

n.（从束缚、支配下）解放

参考例句：

• We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 emancipator   

n.释放者；救星

参考例句：

• Lincoln is known as the Great Emancipator. 林肯是著名的伟大的解放者。 来自互联网
• The strategy of intervention and the role of the emancipator are strongly inspired by critical theory. 理论研究大大地激发了人为的干预政策和对释放者的扮演。 来自互联网

5 chattel   

n.动产；奴隶

参考例句：

• They were slaves,to be bought and sold as chattels.他们是奴隶，将被作为财产买卖。
• A house is not a chattel.房子不是动产。

6 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

7 unifier   

联合者，统一者，使一致的人（或物）； 通代

参考例句：

• Herb is the unifier of the people. 喷鼻草是人平易近的融合剂。

8 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

9 emancipated   

adj.被解放的，不受约束的v.解放某人（尤指摆脱政治、法律或社会的束缚）( emancipate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Slaves were not emancipated until 1863 in the United States. 美国奴隶直到1863年才获得自由。
• Women are still struggling to be fully emancipated. 妇女仍在为彻底解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 abolition   

n.废除，取消

参考例句：

• They declared for the abolition of slavery.他们声明赞成废除奴隶制度。
• The abolition of the monarchy was part of their price.废除君主制是他们的其中一部分条件。

11 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

12 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

13 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

14 depicted   

描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• Other animals were depicted on the periphery of the group. 其他动物在群像的外围加以修饰。
• They depicted the thrilling situation to us in great detail. 他们向我们详细地描述了那激动人心的场面。

15 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

16 fatigued   

adj. 疲乏的

参考例句：

• The exercises fatigued her. 操练使她感到很疲乏。
• The President smiled, with fatigued tolerance for a minor person's naivety. 总统笑了笑，疲惫地表现出对一个下级人员的天真想法的宽容。

17 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

18 plantations   

n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Soon great plantations, supported by slave labor, made some families very wealthy. 不久之后出现了依靠奴隶劳动的大庄园，使一些家庭成了富豪。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• Winterborne's contract was completed, and the plantations were deserted. 维恩特波恩的合同完成后，那片林地变得荒废了。 来自辞典例句

19 insistence   

n.坚持；强调；坚决主张

参考例句：

• They were united in their insistence that she should go to college.他们一致坚持她应上大学。
• His insistence upon strict obedience is correct.他坚持绝对服从是对的。

20 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

21 colonization   

殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖

参考例句：

• Colonization took place during the Habsburg dynasty. 开拓殖民地在哈布斯堡王朝就进行过。
• These countries took part in the colonization of Africa. 这些国家参与非洲殖民地的开发。

22 colonize   

v.建立殖民地，拓殖；定居，居于

参考例句：

• Around 700 Arabs began to colonize East Africa.公元700年阿拉伯人开始把东非变为殖民地。
• Japan used to colonize many countries in Asia.日本曾经殖民过许多亚洲国家。

23 complicates   

使复杂化( complicate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• What complicates the issue is the burden of history. 历史的重负使问题复杂化了。
• Russia as a great and ambitious power gravely complicates the situation. 俄国作为一个强大而有野心的国家，使得局势异常复杂。

24 equivocation   

n.模棱两可的话，含糊话

参考例句：

• These actions must be condemned without equivocation. 对这些行为必须毫不含糊地予以谴责。 来自辞典例句
• With caution, and with some equivocation, Bohr took a further step. 玻尔谨慎地而又有些含糊其词地采取了更深入的步骤。 来自辞典例句

25 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

26 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

27 ebb   

vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态

参考例句：

• The flood and ebb tides alternates with each other.涨潮和落潮交替更迭。
• They swam till the tide began to ebb.他们一直游到开始退潮。

28 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

29 contraband   

n.违禁品，走私品

参考例句：

• Most of the city markets were flooded with contraband goods.大多数的城市市场上都充斥着走私货。
• The customs officers rummaged the ship suspected to have contraband goods.海关人员仔细搜查了一艘有走私嫌疑的海轮。

30 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

31 navigated   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的过去式和过去分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• He navigated the plane through the clouds. 他驾驶飞机穿越云层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The ship was navigated by the North Star. 那只船靠北极星来导航。 来自《简明英汉词典》

32 proponent   

n.建议者；支持者；adj.建议的

参考例句：

• Stapp became a strong early proponent of automobile seat belts.斯塔普是力主在汽车上采用座椅安全带的早期倡导者。
• Halsey was identified as a leading proponent of the values of progressive education.哈尔西被认为是进步教育价值观的主要支持者。