Glory - African Americans in the Civil War

Response: Discuss how the film Glory counters assumptions about African Americans and the Civil War as well as images found in Birth of a Nation.


The film Glory was an excellent film that drew in many different views on how the Civil War actually occurred. At the beginning of the film it began with a war, where nearly everyone on Col. Shaw’s side was killed. After the war scene was when the film first introduced the African Americans. The African American were walking around picking up the dead bodies, still leaving the impression that there was still a great deal of slavery going on at the time. All the action that took place in Glory is very dissimilar to that of images found in Birth of a Nation. These dissimilar images were according to the fact that those men who fought in the Civil War in Birth of a Nation were indeed white men.
After watching Glory, it was quite evident that the film forgot one major aspect of the war and of the men who fought in it, the part of where African Americans also played a huge role. In the reading “Glory,” the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, and Black Soldiers in the Civil War indicated that the screenwriter conveyed a critical message through the film that even within the circumscribed world of military service, blacks were a force. It states that in truth, these African Americans had means of influencing the world around them, of taking matters into their own hands when individuals or the system were treating them unfairly.
When Col. Shaw took on the duty to create the 54th Massachusetts (colored) Infantry was when the movie took a stand on how much the African Americans did throughout the process of the Civil War. Not only in aspects such as fighting in the war, which was a shock to me, but also all they went through in the time prior to the battle.
These African Americans were brought together and separated into many different groups to train for the war. They were vocally abused but they did this all without proper equipment; they did this without shoes. The most unforgettable episode was the beating and whipping of Trip for desertion. This scene of the movie also conveys the sense that African American soldiers would tolerate such abuse.
The main point I feel the film Glory counters assumptions about African Americans and the Civil War was that it gives the African American race credit of their duties in the battle. Like it said in the “Glory” reading, most Americans probably had no idea blacks fought in the Civil War, let alone so courageously.