Trip, the angry fugitive slave – Denzel Washington
Searles, the Emerson-reading intellectual – Andre Braugher
Rawlins, the wise sergeant – Morgan Freeman
Sharts, the stuttering ex-slave – Jihmi Kennedy
Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the 24-year old son of a patrician Boston abolitionist family – Matthew Broderick
Cabot Forbes – Cary Elwes
The tough Irish drill sergeant Mulcahy – John Finn
Morse – Donovan Leitch
Frederick Douglass – Raymond St. Jacques
Historical reenactors from 20 states
Historical advisor – Shelby Foote
“Glory” tells the story of the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the United States Civil War. The 54th was the most celebrated of all black units in the war because it was the first such regiment organized by the Union government. Moreover, the 54th fought in one of the war’s bloodiest encounters--an attack against Confederate Fort Wagner, also called Battery Wagner, in Charleston, South Carolina on 18 July 1863. While the film would have viewers believe that the 54th was composed mostly of ex-slaves, only one of its members grew up as a slave. Most were free northern African Americans, literate and skilled. The 54th was led, as all black troops were, by a white man, Robert Gould Shaw, the son of Boston abolitionists. Although the film contained numerous historical inaccuracies, its heart, as one historian put it, was in the right place. “Glory’s” greatest achievement was its reminder of the roles African American soldiers played in the outcome of the Civil War and in the abolition of slavery.
When war began in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln made it clear that his goal was to restore the Union, and not to fight for emancipation. Very early on, however, Lincoln realized that unless he embraced a partial emancipation, the Union would very likely go down to defeat. Slavery was fundamental to the Confederate effort because slaves furnished the Confederacy with most of its noncombat labor. Slavery also was the soft underbelly of the Confederacy because of slaves’ opposition to the Confederacy. Slaves behaved as an internal enemy behind Confederate lines, and their actions greatly aided the Union effort. Very shortly after the war began, fugitive slaves, or “contraband,” as they came to be called, began fleeing to Union troops whenever they could. They often brought with them vital military intelligence. They also performed noncombat labor for the Union and, by virtue of their absence, severely diminished the Confederacy’s infrastructure in myriad ways.
Lincoln could ill-afford to ignore these allies. To strengthen the Union’s ties to those slaves still behind Confederate lines, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863. The Proclamation did not actually free a single slave. It declared that all slaves behind Confederate lines were thenceforth free. But in order for freedom to be enforced, the Confederacy would have to be defeated. In areas of Union occupation, and in the four loyal slave states of Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware and Missouri, the Proclamation had no effect. The Proclamation also authorized the enlistment of black troops in the Union army. Although Union officers had been recruiting black men long before in South Carolina, the Massachusetss 54th was the first and most famous of all black regiments. Black leaders who helped organize the 54th did so in the belief that black soldiers would prove that they deserved respect and equality. But once in army, black soldiers confronted discrimination and hostility at every turn. One of the most resented practices, unequal pay, is portrayed in the film.
Lincoln chose a strategic moment, shortly after the bloody battle of Antietam in Maryland in 1862, to announce the Proclamation. Although considered a military draw, Lincoln proclaimed Antietam a Union victory to give him the momentum he needed to issue the Proclamation, hardly a popular document throughout the North. Antiblack riots flared across the North in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation. The most notorious, the New York City Draft riots, erupted in lower Manhattan in March 1863. The rioters were angry mobs of mostly Irish workers who terrorized and murdered black inhabitants. The rioters refused to be subject to military draft for the purpose of emancipation. One of the mob’s victims was a nephew of one of the 54th’s sergeants, Robert Simmons; three days later Simmons was mortally wounded in the attack on Fort Wagner. Prior to the battle, most whites tolerated black regiments only because they preferred that blacks rather than whites die in the war. The courage, bravery, and skill that the 54th displayed at Fort Wagner began to alter that perception. When the war ended in April 1865, 179,000 black soldiers, the vast majority of them ex-slaves, had served in 166 regiments, all segregated. Over 33,000 died. Of the 1354 solders who served in the 54th, 664 became casualties. No black regiment was allowed to participate in the Grand Review of the victorious Union Army in Washington, D.C. in August 1865.
Edward Zwick also produced the television series Once and Again (1999) and an older series, thirtysomething (1987). His other movies include Shakespeare in Love (1998), Courage Under Fire (1996), Legends of the Fall (1994), and Leaving Normal (1992).
Denzel Washington’s films include The Hurricane (1999), The Bone Collector (1999), He Got Game (1998), The Siege (1998), Preacher’s Wife (1996), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Philadelphia (1993), Pelican Brief (1993), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Malcolm X (1992), Mo Better Blues (1990), and Cry Freedom (1987), to name a few.
Morgan Freeman’s films include Amistad (1999), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Robin Hood (1993), Seven (1997), Driving Miss Daisy (1992), The Power of One (1992), Outbreak (1995), Deep Impact (1998), and Moll Flanders (1996).
Questions about Glory for Viewing and Reading:
Most of you are probably familiar with the film Gone with the Wind (1939) and some may know D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915). Compare Glory to these films as you watch it, and then thnk about what these comparisons say about changing historiography of the Civil War from 1915 to 1990.
Analyze the tent scenes in the film, those times when African Americans are alone and not being watched by any whites. What do those scenes convey?
When the 54th marches into South Carolina, they encounter another black regiment led by Colonel James Montgomery. What do you make of this very controversial scene, and why do you think Zwick included it?
If you were to choose the most important scene in the movie, the one which most clearly captures the theme of the film, what would be your selection?
Although the Civil War in the United States is often referred to as the war to free the slaves, it rarely occurs to many citizens that African Americans, most of them recently enslaved, not only fought in the war but determined its outcome. In that context, evaluate Glory’s historical accuracy.
Some viewers of Glory resent how the movie tells the story of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment largely through the eyes of Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick), and can document Shaw’s racism easily. Do you think that taking this perspective of Shaw is racist? Does this sanitized and heroic vision of Shaw contribute to the need for a white savior figure in films about African America? Do you see any problems with such a figure? Have you seen other films in which African Americans are “saved” by whites?
Although 180,000 African American men fought for the Union, not all African Americans believed that they should volunteer for duty. Why not? What was the debate about whether or not to participate among African Americans?
All films must be analyzed as cultural products of their time as well as documents, or secondary accounts. The two most famous Civil War films prior to Glory—Birth of a Nation (1915) and Gone With the Wind (193 ) have been topics for a wealth of such analysis. Interpret Glory as a cultural product of the late twentieth century.
On what historical sources is Glory based? Are there historical sources, such as diaries, published accounts, items of material culture, that you could use to judge the accuracy of the film?
No women’s historians were consulted about the film, whereas several military historians were. How do the kinds of advisers the film’s producer sought shape the story it tells. How would the inclusion of women’s historians change the film?
Assigned Reading:
Ira Berlin, “Glory Be” (review)
Jim Cullen, “A Few Good Men”
James McPherson, “Who Freed the Slaves?”
Ira Berlin, “Emancipation and Its Meaning in American Life”
Selected letters from black soldiers
Selected letters from Robert Gould Shaw
Guide to Further Reading:
Russell Duncan, ed. Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992.
Noralee Frankel. Freedom’s Women: Black Women and Families in Civil War-era Mississippi. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1999.
Louis Gerteis. From Contraband to Freedman: Federal Policy toward Southern Blacks, 1861-1865. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1973.
Joseph T. Glatthaar. Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers. NY: Free Press, 1990.
James McPherson, ed. The Negro’s Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted during the War for the Union. NY: Pantheon, 1965.
Edwin S. Redkey, ed. A Grand Army of Black Men: Letters from African American Soldiers in the Civil War, 1861-1865. NY: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
C. Peter Ripley, ed. Witness for Freedom: African American Voices on Race, Slavery, and Emancipation. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1993.
Leslie A. Schwalm. A Hard Fight for We: Women’s Transition from Slavery to Freedom in South Carolina. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Swint, Henry Lee, ed. Dear Ones at Home: Letters from Contraband Camps. Vanderbilt University Press, 1966.
Susie King Taylor. A Black Woman’s Civil War Memoirs: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops. Boston, 1902; reprint ed., 1988.
Wesley, Charles H. Negro Americans in the Civil War. NY: Publishers Co., 1970.