One of the most famous and best films of the early silent
era, The Birth of a Nation can be
split into two distinct parts. The first part is a story of the American Civil
War and features two families, The Stonemans from Pennsylvania and the Camerons
from South Carolina. Early on the Stonemans are seen visiting their friends in
the south and the beginnings of relationships occur between some of the younger
members of the family. There is slight tension in the air though as the Civil
War looms in the near future. Fast forward to the war and both families join
their respective armies and in the end meet on the battlefield in an incredible
battle scene. It is at about this time that the first overtly obvious racism crops
up as a group of black militia ransack the Cameron home and search for white
woman to abuse. This section ends with a fairly accurate depiction of the assassination
of President Lincoln.
Part two, The
Reconstruction begins with views of a battered and beaten south in which
the formerly wealthy Cameron family has been reduced to rags and renting out
rooms in their mansion. The head of the Stoneman family travels south with his protégé,
a mixed race man called Lynch. With the help of black soldiers they turn white
voters away from poll booths and create a landslide election win in which the South Carolina legislature
is filled with black members. Lynch is elected as Governor General. With laws
being passed which give blacks more rights and infringe on the rights of whites
(intermarriage – the outrage!!) Ben Cameron forms an organisation called the Ku
Klux Klan who band together to threaten and kill black men who attack white
women.
