Kory Stamps
Prof. Jackson
US History 1
April 16, 2013
Glory

Over this past weekend, I had to watch the movie Glory, starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman for my U.S. History class. Even though I had to watch this movie for a class, action movies are my all time favorite genre of movies. So from start to finish of Glory, my eyes never left the television screen. I had some sort of interest in seeing this particular movie beforehand just by assuming it would be good due to the characters that starred in it, never did I think it would be as good as it was though! Glory took place in the time period when the president of the United States was Abraham Lincoln. In the movie, Lincoln’s goal was to free the slaves and to teach them how to be a dominant army lead by white men. Lincoln put Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) in charge of creating a special U.S. army force African American slaves. Colonel Shaw was hesitant about taking on the job at first knowing it was going to be difficult getting slaves who were previously owned by white families, to take orders from him, who was also white. But John Rawlins, the so called “leader” of the slaves, gave a thumbs up to Shaw and made it clear that the African American men were ready to be part of the army and were prepared to commit to doing whatever it took to make that happen. In the beginning, the slaves argued and argued with other members of the army, not because they were trying to cause fights, but because they thought they deserved more respect than what they were receiving at that time. As time went on, the arguing was stopped by the head honchoes of the army. John Rawlins at this point was fed up with the orders from the other men and got caught disserting his duties. He was whipped and put to shame for abandoning his fellow men. The African Americans learned to listened and quickly learn from their Colonel. He was very tough on them, not to be mean, but because he wanted to be sure that they were prepared to handle their own weapon and the up coming battles. The white community did not support or have faith that the African American army force would be as effective as a white task force. They also believed that the African American force didn’t deserve shoes, but once again, the Colonel stood up for them and made sure they received the same treatment in the army as the white soldiers. Although, the slave soldiers earned ten dollars a month instead of thirteen like the others. Of course, the African Americans felt this was unfair and Colonel Shaw agreed with them. They felt they were no different than the rest, but had to let that fight go for the time being. The eventually received their uniforms and few days later, concurred their first battle. In a second battle shortly after the first one, they tried to take over a fort, but the white army who occupied the land, had too much firepower for African American troops to handle. By the end of the battle, Colonel Shaw sacrificed his life in order to help them overtake the fort. This sacrifice led to the 54th regiment of Massachusetts. After watching this movie, it has become clear that with a little effort and support, anyone can do what they put their mind to. The