Glory

I never thought I was a fan of older movies but the movie Glory showed me otherwise.  It's not when the movie was made that matters, but the content it displays.  The movie was very moving as African Americans fought for a country that had treated them so terribly.  They risked their lives, and were extraordinarily brave in doing so, for the freedom of potentially themselves if they lived through the battles, and for all other African Americans.  While the average white male fought simply for the Union or the Confederacy, African Americans fought for their race.  What they were fighting so hard for had so much meaning to them.  I was very touched and invigorated by the movie as it gave me an entirely new insight to African Americans finally being able to join the army, a topic I had never really thought of before.  I was inspired by the characters of the African American soldiers because of their bravery.  A couple of scenes really stuck with me.  One of these scenes was when they had their first battle in the woods and they were very empowered while fighting. You could tell by watching them that they felt a sense of freedom while fighting and that what they were fighting for amounted to so much more than what any white solider was fighting for.  They seemed fearless. And when they won the battle, they were cheering which I wouldn't think is typical for soldiers to do.  The other scene that stuck with me was the one that occurred the night before the battle at Fort Wagner.  Instead of fearing for their lives, the soldiers were singing and talking about how they weren't afraid to die, especially if it meant dying for their freedom.  That scene truly showed what these men were fighting for.  I would definitely recommend this movie as it has an amazing message and shows that for African Americans, the Civil War was so much more than a battle between two parts of the country, but rather a battle for the freedom of their race.

Personally, I could never join the military because it would scare me and I don't think that combat solves any problems, but I do have much respect for the people that care about the country and the people in it enough to risk their lives.  I feel like joining the army in the Civil War days was much different than it is today.  Back then, I feel like people joined because it was more common and considered the noble or patriotic thing to do.  America was a newly free country and people were motivated to fight hard in order to keep it together since they had already fought so hard to gain their freedom from the British.  To just give up on it would make those previous years of fighting all for nothing.  I do think that the men of the 54th Massachusetts are heroes not only because they fought for a country despite how badly they had been treated by its people, but also because they fought so bravely for their freedom.  I do think that Shaw is a hero for training and leading these men as it was a task I'm sure not many other white men would take on, but I do not think that he should have to be considered a hero for what he did.  But since racism and slavery were still were prevalent, he was a hero.

This story is significant because it shows how human African Americans are in a time when they were treated as less than human.  While white males were mindlessly killing each other off in battles, African Americans fought for something so much more important and meaningful.  The leadership of the 54th at Fort Wagner showed just how fearless those soldiers were.  When things were dangerous and risky, they charged ahead and continued to fight for what they believed in rather than backing down.