Abraham Lincoln - totally unnecessary Civil War and of course I don't like him because of this false opinion we have about him. He was a racist - he clearly said he thought that black peoples are worse than white.
This is utter, ridiculous revisionism. For those of yall not in the know, "revisionist" is the lowest thing a history professional can call someone, like a cross between idiot and pigf****r.
Point by point:
totally unnecessary Civil War - The Civil War was not unnecessary. Creating a separate country out of another nation's national territory is an act of war. My beloved South started it, and did so based on hysteria, lies, and the unforgiveable sin of slaveholding.
false opinion we have about him - Opinions can't be "false"; but they can be based on wrong information. For an example, review your own post.
He was a racist - No, sorry. He held, for his time, fairly progressive views on race. The bogus charge that he was a racist is based on his 1858 campaign speech where he said, to appease a crowd, that while
he did not think the black man the equal of the white man in intellectual talent, he did think he was his equal in his right to earn his own bread by the sweat of his brow.
If someone said that in
1958, you could call them a racist. But in 1858 there were scientists and biologists teaching and expounding on precisely that view and backing it up with, as it turns out, anecdotal and prejudged evidence. Virtually no one was making the contrary point.
Lincoln's record on race relations and on his ability to evolve his views on racial questions are laudatory. Early on in the war he strongly endorsed the use of black troops as a demonstration of the valor and worthiness of black men for full citizenship.
He started off having mainstream views on race and, when confronted with facts, very quickly and steadily moved to views and opinions that the majority of the country wouldn't get to until the 1930s and 40s.
If you eliminate from consideration as leader every head who doesn't come up to 21st century standards of racial enlightenment, you'd probably eliminate the majority of leaderheads already in Civ games--including Winston Churchill who was considerably behind the times in his own racial thinking.
But at least we agree on Cleopatra.