Civil War Movies: Glory

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Final Take Home Essay on Glory The movie Glory is about Colonel Robert Shaw coming back from the fighting in the war and leads the first African American regiment in the Civil War, the 54th Massachusetts. The movie focuses on Captain turned Colonel Robert Shaw coming back from battle and training an African American regiment along with his friend Captain Cabot Forbes. The movie focuses on four African Americans, Sargent Rawlins, Thomas Searles, Jupiter Sharts, and Tripp, following their journey into a united division in the US military. The movie begins with Shaw in the Battle of Antietam, where he passed out due to his injuries and wakes up with the conflict over. Afterwards, he returns home in Massachusetts, showing signs that the battle had slightly traumatized him. Shaw meets Frederick Douglass there and is told that he will be the first to lead a colored regiment, the 54th Massachusetts. When he is told of this news, he asks his friend Cabot Forbes to assist him as his second in command. Shaw’s first volunteer for the 54th Mass. is other close friend Thomas Searles. After sending word of a colored regiment, many African Americans sign up, specifically Rawlins, Searles, and Tripp. However, Lincoln sends an order saying that any black person that takes arms in the war would either return to slavery or be put to death. Even though they face the threat of death, none of the soldiers-in-training leave. This scene is important since it demonstrates how much they are willing to sacrifice in order to get their freedom. The soldiers’ training begins and in order to train everyone correctly, Shaw brings in Col. Mulcahy. At this point of the film, some of the scenes can be viewed as Shaw being introduced to racism due to superiorit... ... middle of paper ... ...ious slaves the right to citizenship, meaning they were able to do anything that a normal citizen could do, for example hold seats of power. The Fifteenth amendment ensured that they were given the right to vote. However, the reason that their accomplishments were in vain was because they did not get rid of racism. Whatever advancement they made was taken back due to whites still believing in racism. After the Reconstruction era, the South feared an African American with power so they formed hate groups and technicalities to get around amendments. Even though the Fourteenth amendment ensured that slaves were given the right to citizenship, the whole ideal of “separate but equal” came into play. With the Fifteenth amendment, the South was able to justify the racist action of enforcing a literacy clause or a grandfather clause by writing it into their constitution.

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