Birth of a Nation, The

Birth of a Nation, The, silent motion picture about a Southern family’s experiences during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and Reconstruction, based on two novels and a play by Thomas Dixon. Released in 1915, this film was directed by D. W. Griffith and is notable for its technical innovations and for the enormous controversy it aroused. Unlike most of his predecessors, Griffith used a variety of camera angles and close-ups. He also was one of the first to use a technique called crosscutting, which involves switching back and forth between different story lines. The movie was a big box-office hit, but it also inspired race riots in Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago because of its racist portrayal of African Americans. When Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall) returns to the South after the Civil War, he feels that the region is being torn apart by carpetbaggers and black people in positions of power. After a black man attacks his little sister (Mae Marsh), Ben organizes the Ku Klux Klan to restore law and order in the South. President Woodrow Wilson was so impressed with this version of the Reconstruction that he said it was “like history written in lightning.”

Alternate Title

• The Clansman

Director

• D. W. Griffith

Cast

• Lillian Gish (Elsie Stoneman)
• Mae Marsh (Flora Cameron, the little sister)
• Henry B. Walthall (Ben Cameron, the little colonel)
• Miriam Cooper (Margaret Cameron)
• Mary Alden (Lydia Brown, Stoneman's mulatto housekeeper)
• Ralph Lewis (The Honorable Austin Stoneman, leader of the house)
• George Siegmann (Silas Lynch)
• Walter Long (Gus, a renegade black)
• Robert Harron (Ted Stoneman)
• Wallace Reid (Jeff, the blacksmith)
• Joseph Henabery (Abraham Lincoln)
• Elmer Clifton (Phil Stoneman)
• Josephine Crowell (Mrs. Cameron)
• Spottiswoode Aitken (Dr. Cameron)
• George Andre Beranger (Wade Cameron)
• Maxfield Stanley (Duke Cameron)
• Jennie Lee (Cindy, the faithful mammy)
• Donald Crisp (General Ulysses S. Grant)
• Howard Gaye (General Robert E. Lee)
• Sam De Grasse (Senator Charles Sumner)
• Raoul Walsh (John Wilkes Booth)
• Eugene Pallette (Wounded enemy to whom Ben gives succor)
• Elmo Lincoln (White Arm Joe)
• Olga Grey (Laura Keene)
• William De Vaull (Jake)
• Tom Wilson (Stoneman's negro servant)
• Erich von Stroheim (Man who falls off roof)
• Bessie Love (Piedmont girl)
• Violet Wilkey (Flora as a child)
• Alberta Lee (Mrs. Lincoln)
• William Freeman (Sentry)
• Charles Stevens (Volunteer)

Trivia

• White actors in makeup played all the black people in this film.

Quote

• Title card: “The bringing of the African to America planted the first seeds of disunion.”