Thaddeus Stevens (April 4, 1792 - August 11, 1868) was a member of the US House of Representatives for the Radical Republicans (1859 to 1868). He was against the slavery and discrimination of African Americans and led opposition against President Andrew Johnson. "Lost Cause" propaganda painted him as a "monster" for his abolitionist, pro-civil rights stance and his attempts to prevent the former slave-owners from regaining power, but nowadays, these actions and beliefs are (rightly) seen as heroic.
He was partners with Lydia Hamilton Smith.
Stevens died in 1868 at the age of 76.
Media
- The main villain in The Birth of a Nation is a fictional Congressman named Austin Stoneman. He's clearly a No Historical Figures Were Harmed version of Stevens, right down to him having a black mistress named Lydia.
- In the 1942 film Tennesse Johnson, he's depicted as a villain, played by Lionel Barrymore.
- Lincoln: Tommy Lee Jones plays him in the film as he tries to push the president to move forward with the 13th Amendment and briefly depicts his relationship with Smith, which, as noted on this very wiki, is portrayed in a much more sympathetic light than in The Birth of a Nation.
