mr. holzer: ready for another question? mr. blight: sure. get us back in the 19th century. mr. holzer: he'll start with edna because of your recent book on lincoln and emancipation. obviously eric has covered this as well. from a high school teacher in our audience. it wasn't until i saw the film "lincoln" that i realized how far abraham lincoln strayed from his save the union philosophy in pushing for the 13th amendment. is that film portrayal accurate? professor greene medford: how far he strayed? mr. holzer: i think progressed is probably what the questioner means or maybe strayed. i don't know. professor greene medford: yeah, i certainly -- i would agree that he put his full weight behind passage of the amendment by 1865 or at least after the summer of 1864. but it doesn't start with him. and i think that that's where it goes wrong. this is an abolitionist effort in the senate and it's passing the senate before it's passed in the house of representatives. what you saw in the movie was the second time it's going through the house of representatives. initially lincoln had not

mr. holzer: let me see if i can squeeze one more question in. >> i would end on that. mr. holzer: this is also provocative. there are two questions relating to women. one suggests that we have not spoken enough aside from the feminist founding mothers, whose adjusted the 13th amendment, in advancing the ideals of positive reconstruction. and also issues of gender and sexuality and how they relate to the push for racial equality then and now, if at all. what about the women in the movement then? professor greene medford: women have always been such an important part of the rights of all people. we talk about the male abolitionist when there were so many women who were by their side and sometimes ahead of them in many instances. the same thing is true during reconstruction as well. there have been some wonderful studies that have been done recently on exactly how women are being impacted by reconstruction and how they are in turn impacting reconstruction, so i would really suggest strongly that you take a look at some of those recent studies. >> as she says, add to your readi