This film was adapted from the letters from Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the military officer in charge of the Fifty-fourth regiment. His letters showed the strength, courage, and motivation from the men in the Fifty-fourth company. This division was the first all black regiment in Massachusetts during the Civil War. This group consisted of African Americans willing to fight and die for the Union. At first the United States government was undecided about the use of black soldiers in the army and used them in demeaning tasks.
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
I have so much empathy for the struggles and strive that they have endured for freedom, something many Americans take for granted. I found myself reading Red Summer and getting teary eyed because I had no idea about most of the events that occurred in 1919. It, in a sense, was a war that went on for blacks - a war that had to be fought in order for them to have the simple rights that whites enjoyed. I truly believe that the men and women who suffered and fought for their place in society are heroes. I found myself wondering what I would have done if I had lived in this time.
One of the first inaccuracies that was present in the movie was the suggestion that most of the African American soldiers fighting in the war where fugitive slaves, like John Rawlins or Private Trip, who had escaped from the South and had a desire to fight for the abolitionist north. In actuality most of the soldiers who fought in the 54th Massachusetts regiment where African Americans who were free slaves, like Thomas Seares, from not only Massachusetts but also Pennsylvania and New York. Of course there were some soldiers who were running away from the secessionist southern states who enlisted in the northern states to help their cause. In the film Robert Gould Shaw, who is played by Mathew Broderick, is offered the position of Colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment by the governor of Massachusetts, Governor John Albion Andrew and accepts it the same day he is offered the position. In actuality however, Robert Gould Shaw was offered the position as commanding officer but REJECTED the offer when it was first presented to him.
The civil war was started in 1861 which was caused by slavery. It was suppose to be a white man's war. White southerners would wage war to make the confederacy a seperate and independent nation free to promote slavery. As a result the white northerners took up arms to maintain the Union but not to free a single slave. The blacks has contributed a lot of work to gain their own freedom.
Another propaganda the US Government used was the idea they were fighting for freedom and human rights, yet the black soldiers fighting were not completely free and were having their own human rights abused back in America. As well as the fact the fact that despite the US welcomed the extra soldiers but still treated them unequally sparked something amongst the black community. And so began the Double V Campaign. It stood for Victory Abroad, Victory at Home. It meant they wanted Victory against Nazi Germany and the Axis, and Victory for Civil Rights.
Shaw accepts and offers his childhood friend, Cabot Forbes the position of second in command. Thomas Searles is Shaw’s friend and becomes the first African American volunteer. Many more African Americans would join the military and the 54th Massachusetts becomes a large regiment that goes through a long training process by a rough and strict man, Sergeant Major Mulchay. Shaw is informed that his regiment would not fight battles because the regiment is full of African Americans. Shaw becomes angry and confronts his commanding officers.
Gordon S. Barker in his book, In Fugitive Slaves and the Unfinished American Revolution: Eight Cases, 1848-1856 he contributes to the stories on American Revolution particularly in an effort to re-image and re-periodize the ‘grand American narrative’ of the U.S revolution by George Bancroft. The book is focused on the other side of the revolution i.e. the Black’s struggle for the war against slavery. For the common American man, the revolution and thus the war ended quite before when compared with the Revolution waged by the African slaves. The African Americans, united in their quest for creating ‘a perfect union’ which at its very earliest ended when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified.
The Main Cause of the Civil War ” Had there been no slavery, there would have been no war. Had there been no moral condemnation of slavery, there would have been no war” (Ahlstrome 549). The American Civil War lasted from 1861-1865 and led to more than 618,000 Americans killed. The war began on April 12, 1861, when confederate forces in Charleston, South Carolina, attacked a U.S. military establishment at Fort Sumter. But what led brothers to fight against brothers?
They portrayed Brown as a man who died fighting against the injustice of slavery. True or not, the martyr image gave strength to the moral cause of abolition. The Disruption of the Democrats In the 1860 election, Democrats tried, and failed, to nominate a candidate at their convention in Charleston, SC. The party was squarely split over the slavery issue. Northern Democrats had a convention in Baltimore and nominated Stephen Douglas with a popular sovereignty position.