Memo to Spielberg: Connecticut DID Back the Thirteenth Amendment

Rep. Joe Courtney was a history major at Tufts University.  Perhaps this is why he noticed a blatant historical inaccuracy in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster film Lincoln.

The movie includes a scene in which two Connecticut congressmen vote against the 13th amendment.  Courtney caught the error.  In fact, all of the members of the Connecticut congressional delegation--four in all--voted in favor of the amendment that outlawed slavery in the United States.

Here is a taste of the Associated Press article:

"How could congressmen from Connecticut - a state that supported President Lincoln and lost thousands of her sons fighting against slavery on the Union side of the Civil War - have been on the wrong side of history?" he said in his letter.

Courtney praised the film's acting and cinematography but said artistic license does not permit it to inaccurately put Connecticut on the wrong side of history, particularly on an issue as powerful as slavery. In a letter to Spielberg, the four-term Democratic congressman includes a tally of the 1865 vote by the state's congressional delegation and a passionate defense of the state's role in emancipating millions of blacks.

Courtney, who majored in history at Tufts University, asked that the movie, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln, be corrected before its release on DVD.