Stephen Spielberg’s “Lincoln” may have garnered an Oscar for Daniel Day-Lewis, but it made a bigger impact on American history. Because of the film, an asterisk that had been next to Mississippi’s name for far too long was finally removed. That all-important asterisk marked the state as the only one in the union that never officially ratified the 13^th Amendment of the Constitution abolishing slavery.

Say what? Yes, it’s true. As demonstrated in “Lincoln,” only three-fourths of the states were needed to ratify the amendment for the nation to adopt it, so Mississippi’s approval wasn’t vital. In fact, New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky also failed to approve No. 13 in the year of its adoption. It didn’t mean slavery was legal in those states. Once an amendment to the Constitution becomes the law of the land, it’s the law of the whole land. They just decided to stand on principle, I suppose.

New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky eventually ratified the amendment, however. But for some reason lawmakers in Mississippi didn’t get around to it until 1995… sort of. Back in 1994 a clerk in the Texas legislature discovered Mississippi was still holding onto its slavery roots and began an effort to change that status. Yes, it took someone from another state to get the ball rolling. He mailed letters to all the African-American members of the Mississippi legislature and on March 16, 1995, lawmakers finally ratified the 130-year-old amendment. But the story doesn’t end there.

For the past 18 years, Mississippi’s ratification date has been accompanied by an asterisk. Why? Because somehow, someone forgot to send some very important paperwork off to the Office of the Federal Register, so the ratification was never made official. Interesting, eh? First it takes 130 years and a campaign started in another state to get Mississippi lawmakers to approve the amendment abolishing slavery. Then when it finally happens, “someone” misfiles a form?

Mississippi’s asterisk may have remained in place forever if “Lincoln” hadn’t inspired University of Mississippi Medical Center professor Ranjan Batra to research what happened after the movie ended. He found out all about Mississippi’s 1995 vote, and he found out about the asterisk. So Batra contacted his friend Ken Sullivan, who notified Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann. Hosemann’s office filed the proper paperwork, and the state officially ratified the 13^th amendment on Feb. 7, 2013. It was that easy, once someone pointed out the discrepancy. Hard to believe nobody had noticed for the past 18 years. Or did they?

See, Mississippi doesn’t have the greatest track record when it comes to racial equality. Failing to ratify the 13^th Amendment was only the beginning. Ever heard of peons? Once slavery was illegal, Mississippi and other southern states just developed systems in which they could force black workers into involuntary servitude that spanned generations. But since it wasn’t called slavery, it was “OK.” Actually, it was still illegal, but hey, we’re talking about a state that took 148 years to officially abolish slavery, right?

Here’s Wikipedia’s definition of a Southern black peon:

Local officials arbitrarily arrested tens of thousands of freedmen, and charged them with fines and the court costs of their cases. White merchants, farmers or business owners could pay their debts, and the prisoner had to work off the debt. Prisoners were “sold” or leased as forced laborers to owners and operators of coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries and farm plantations, with the revenues for their labor going to the states. Thousands of other African Americans were seized by southern landowners and compelled into years of involuntary servitude. Government officials leased falsely imprisoned blacks to small-town entrepreneurs, provincial farmers, and dozens of corporations looking for cheap labor. Black men, women and children were forced to labor without compensation. Their labor was repeatedly bought and sold for decades.

Sounds a lot like slavery, doesn’t it? And it went on in some places until the 1960s. According to a 2007 article in People, some African-American peons in early 20^th century Mississippi weren’t even aware slavery had been abolished. Their lives were no different than their grandparents’.

“Back then, we did what we had to do to live,” former peon Mae Miller told People. “We thought everyone was in the same fix.“

Mississippi may have taken 148 years to ratify the 13^th amendment, but in actuality, it was only about 50 years after it stopped allowing slavery. Let’s give it a pat on the back…