Another Battle Within the Civil War

In the United States, the teaching of history has become a major source of conflict between those who want schools to teach only about the positive people and events and those who want schools to teach both the good and the bad. For a long time, movies faced the same conflict. One movie that showed another side of the Civil War (1861-1865) is titled “Glory”.

The historical basis for this movie is the movement by abolitionists—Black and white—to give Black men, free men and escaped slaves, a chance to fight for the Union Army, the army of the North. The movement was endorsed by the great Frederick Douglass and other prominent Black and white leaders, as an opportunity for Black people to fight for equal treatment in society.

The main characters are members of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry, a newly formed all-Black regiment, portrayed in the movie by prominent actors including Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington. The actual regiment was composed of a wide variety of volunteers. Some were born and raised in the North, others were slaves who managed to escape from the South. Some were illiterate; others were well educated. They had a variety of reasons for volunteering to fight and risking their lives to defeat the South and abolish enslavement.

Even in the Northern army, they were treated miserably, with poor equipment and food and with hatred because of the color of their skin. Their story is the subject of the articles in the magazine shown below. The movie itself is highly recommended.

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