Glory Movie Essay

762 Words4 Pages
Johnny Wong Hist 120 Mark Sigmon Summer 2012 Final Essay Topic #1 The movie Glory is an interesting movie during the American Civil War. My favorite character is Thomas Searles. In the beginning of the film, Captain Robert Gould Shaw lead the Union soldiers in a attack on the Confederates during the Battle of Antietam, but he ends up becoming wounded and loses consciousness. When he was brought back to the hospital and promoted to Colonel, he was given command of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. This is when Thomas Searles, an educated African American friend of Robert Gould Shaw decided to take the lead and become the first volunteer soldier to join the regiment. Thomas Searles’s contribution led to many other African American…show more content…
Prior to the Civil War, African Americans were never treated very humanely. The Whites were the dominant race while the African Americans suffered under their commands as slaves who were treated unequally. Because slavery was such a huge issue, it became the reason of the outbreak of the Civil War. The African American troops in the movie Glory fought with their lives in hopes of winning the war to achieve freedom. Their goal was to abolish slavery completely and prevent it from harming many people. By sacrificing their lives into the war, this shows how devoted they are to putting an end to slavery even though the Reconstruction failed. The filmmakers’ goals when making this movie were to show how slavery was the reason why the Civil War was being fought. Throughout the movie, the African American soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry underwent harsh training as well as being treated unequally. They were used for manual labor and nothing else until Robert Gould Shaw stepped up for the soldiers to have them fight in the war. By doing so, the African American soldiers were able to prove themselves and show how useful they actually were. They were not only fighting for the Union army, but most importantly, for their
Open Document