The Birth of a Nation Scene 17 Summary

  • We've now entered the second part of this three-hour movie—phew. This section covers the Reconstruction era of the South.
  • There's also a disclaimer that the film is merely historical and not meant to "reflect on any race or people of today." We'll let the absurdity of that statement sink in.
  • More captions talk about how Northerners entered the South to put white people "under the heel" of black people. Again, we'll just hold on tongues on how blatantly inaccurate that is—whoops, too late. That's insanely inaccurate.
  • Stoneman is described as "the uncrowned king" of Washington. He's shown in his home surrounded by a gaggle of hangers-on.
  • We're introduced to Silas Lynch, a mixed-race man who's Stoneman's protégé. Stoneman then makes the claim that black people and white people are fully equal. Why, we do declare.
  • Senator Sumner argues against this idea, but Stonewall cuts him off. He says that Lynch will become the symbol of this racial equality.