← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · confederate_commando
Thread ID: 13135 | Posts: 13 | Started: 2004-04-12
2004-04-12 00:28 | User Profile
[url]http://littlegeneva.com/birth.html[/url]
(LOTS OF GOOD PICS AT THE LITTLE GENEVA SITE)
After Darkness, Light
The Birth of a Nation
A Review ââ¬Â¢ By Harry Seabrook ââ¬Â¢
Reconstruction (1865-77) was a reign of terror. The following is excerpted from a letter written in the early 1920s by an elderly South Carolina woman: "From the close of the Civil War in April 1865 until 1876 was a period never to be forgotten by those who lived through it. As a horde of Carpet Baggers from the North descended upon us and they, in conjunction with the meanest, most detestable creatures that ever wore the skin of a white man (I mean the Scalawag Scamps who turned traitor to their own people in order to rob them). The negroes, having been freed and given the right of suffrage, were easily the dupes of these scoundrels, and were told that they were entitled to forty acres...and a mule, and if they could not get it any other way, to burn out the whites and take it by force... While I don't recall any murder committed, they did proceed to burn hundreds of dwellings... Until about 1869 and 1870, there was scarely a night passed without a fire in some direction. The people had become desperate under this state of affairs. Something must be done to protect themselves. There was brought about what was...known as the Ku Klux Klan...under the leadership of...tens of thousands of the best men of the South... The influence of the order soon manifested itself by bringing about a wholesome change in the minds of the scoundrels who had been robbing us, and they began seeking other climes until the memorable campaign under the Red Shirts and General Wade Hampton in 1876 forever redeemed South Carolina [from]...Carpet Bagger and Scalawag rule."
Frank Owsley writes: "For ten years the South, already ruined by the loss of nearly $2,000,000,000 invested in slaves, with its land worthless, its cattle and stock gone, its houses burned, was turned over to the three millions of former slaves, some of whom could still remember the taste of human flesh and the bulk of them hardly three generations removed from cannibalism."
The Klan was founded by six young Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee, in order to form a resistance against federal predators and the Negroes they empowered. Their great enemy was abolitionist Methodist Parson William Brownlow, who was elected governor of Tennessee after the War. According to Donald Davidson, in his book The Tennessee, the guiding force behind the Klan at this early stage was General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who historian Shelby Foote calls one of the only two geniuses to emerge from Lincoln's War - the other being Lincoln himself. During the war, Forrest was called the "wizard of the saddle" for so often cheating death (he had 30 horses shot out from beneath him), and so he became the first Grand Wizard of the Klan. Most do not realize that his former slaves, of their own free will, stayed with him and assisted the Klan in purifying the land of Yankees.
The Constitution of the Klan, issued in 1868, stated that the objective was to "protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the indignities, wrongs and outrages of the lawless, the violent and the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers."
"It should be noted," writes Davidson, that the Klan's "rise to power in Tennessee, and its vast growth elsewhere followed closely upon the passage by Congress of the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867, the rise of the Union Leagues, the rigged Tennessee election of 1867, and the Brownlow militia act which made the parson a despot. During the second half of 1867 and the first half of 1868 the Klan moved swiftly and skillfully into action... There is no evidence whatever that it was, as the frightened Radicals immediately vowed, a second rebellion against the United States. Its members were sworn to uphold the Constitution and all constitutional laws... A few shots ringing out here and there at night, the shrilling of distant whistles, the remorseless clatter of hoofbeats up and down the lane - that was enough."
Klansmen dressed in ghostly attire as a way of showing that the "ghosts" of the Confederacy still walked the earth. This frightened superstitious Negroes so much that rowdiness in the streets and attendance at Union League meetings instantly declined. By design, Klansmen appeared and disappeared suddenly, leaving Negroes with the impression that "the Ku-Klux riz from the ground." Many tricks were used, such as asking for long drinks of water, during which the Klansman remarked that it was the first drink he had had "since the battle of Manassas" or some other famous battle, when in fact the water went through a tube concealed beneath his robe and into a rubber bag. Often, while drinking water, he would remove his false head and hand it to the Negro to hold. Before riding away, he offered to shake hands, leaving the Negro clutching skeleton fingers. This understandably petrified the Negroes and kept them subdued.
Brownlow declared martial law in nine counties where the Klan was most active, but by the time a new governor stepped in who sought reconciliation, the Klan had disbanded. It was believed that the organization had served its purpose in creating some semblance of order. It was not long before ex-Confederates seized control of the legislature and the rule of law was restored. Without the Klan, the Reconstruction era would have been bitter indeed.
This is all necessary background for understanding The Birth of a Nation, which was made only 50 years after the end of Lincoln's War. Those who have been taught the Yankee view of history (i.e., a lie) will be unnerved by what they see on the screen, but I hope to show how very different was the view of history at the dawn of filmmaking in comparison to today.
Thomas Dixon, a Baptist pastor from North Carolina, was so angered by a 1901 staging of Harriet Beecher Stoweââ¬â¢s Uncle Tomââ¬â¢s Cabin that he vowed to pick up his pen and undo its damage. He became the author of three novels, two of which were The Leopardââ¬â¢s Spots: A Romance of the White Manââ¬â¢s Burden, 1865-1900 (1902), and The Clansman, An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905). The Clansman became a hit play in 1906, and director D.W. Griffith, the son of a Confederate soldier, fell in love with it.
The epic film he made tells the story of the War and its aftermath as experienced by the Stoneman family from the North and the Cameron family from the South. The two families are dear friends, yet each is loyal to its region during the conflict. The surviving Cameron son organizes the Klan and declares war on the blacks and carpetbaggers when his younger sister falls to her death rather than be raped by a renegade ex-slave. Ultimately, the Klan restores order, and the Stoneman patriarch, a Radical Republican who fueled the uprising, is chastised. At the end of the film, the two families intermarry, symbolizing the reunification of sections. Meanwhile, blacks are too scared to vote, ensuring white political dominance in the South. Here are the subtitles and some stills from the film.
Griffith's production was so expensive that it was estimated that the film would have to gross the staggering sum of $250,000 in order to break even. It is literally the first big movie, and it opened in Los Angeles on February 8, 1915, with the title The Clansman. Tickets were priced at an unprecedented $2 each. What might seem amazing to those who are alive today is that, though it was initially banned in eight Northern states, not a single white film critic considered the subject matter to be racist. At the New York premiere, the crowd cheered so loudly that Dixon yelled above the din to Griffith: "so powerful a film...should be renamed The Birth of a Nation!" And so it was. There were huge billboards in Times Square of Klan nightriders, and horsemen dressed in Klan regalia rode through the New York streets, if you can imagine such a thing. Moviegoers were bussed in from Connecticut and New Jersey, two of the states under a ban. Despite protests by the NAACP, it was the most successful film ever shown in New York City during the silent film era. It achieved its goal of $250,000 in less than a week, and it has grossed a total of between $20 million and $100 million.
Griffith screened the film for President Woodrow Wilson on February 18, 1915. It was the first film ever to be screened in the White House. Wilson then screened the film nightly for congressional delegations in order to secure their support for federally-mandated segregation. He proclaimed the film to be not only historically accurate, but like "history writ with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." (Wilson's father was the first pastor of Augusta's Confederate Presbyterian Church in 1861.)
James Agee declared of Griffith: "He achieved what no other known man has achieved. To watch his work is like being witness to the beginning of melody, or the first conscious use of the lever or the wheel; the emergence, coordination and first eloquence of language; the birth of an art: and to realize that this is all the work of one man." Roger Ebert says that these words "are almost by definition the highest praise any film director has ever received from a great film critic."
The technical achievements alone earn it the title of most influential film of all time. Griffith pioneered the closeup, the panoramic long shot, the flashback, and the fadeout. It had its own score, introduced night photography, employed the "iris" effect, parallel action, cross-cut editing, tinting for dramatic effect, cameo profiles, and high-angle shots. The assassination of Lincoln and the ride of the Klan to the rescue of the town are classic pieces of cinema. The juxtaposition of Puritans blessing and then cursing the slave trade is profound. Yet the film is far from perfect. The plot is sentimental and overblown, and Lincoln is practically deified. He is even called the "Great Heart" because Griffith, the Unionist, believed that had Lincoln lived, the horrors of Reconstruction could have been averted. He is portrayed as a hero for his supposedly lax punishment of the South in the brief time between the end of the War and his assassination. The final subtitle of the film quotes Daniel Webster in praise the new empire: "Liberty and union, one and inseparable, now and forever!" An epilogue ends the film which states: "The establishment of the South in its rightful place is the birth of a new nation... The new nation, the real United States...in which a brotherhood of love should bind all the nations." To coax this manufactured unity, the 1933 re-release included the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner, for which the audience was asked to stand. Griffith knew that North and South were of the same race, and thereby the "mystic chords of memory," as Lincoln put it, would triumph over the common foe - the black race. This message is very similar to another film he produced, The Martyrs of the Alamo, which suggests that revolution in Texas was ignited because Mexican troops lusted after Southern women.
A group of independent black filmmakers released The Birth of a Race in 1918 as a response to The Birth of a Nation. It cost $500,000, nearly five times The Birth of a Nation's budget, and was panned by Variety magazine, which said that it was "replete with historical inaccuracies, gross exaggerations, and bromidic appeals to patriotism," noting that the film was "full of rape, murder, and suicide."
The Birth of a Nation would go on to hold the record of most profitable film for over 20 years, until Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. Will Rogers, another son of a Confederate soldier, and Shirley Temple and many others portrayed sympathetic Southern characters in the films of the 1920s and 1930s.
The film's success spawned the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, beginning with the efforts of William Simmons in 1915. By 1924, the reorganized Klan was at the peak of its power and could claim about 3 million members. It had so much political power that a 1924 Democratic National Convention resolution denouncing it was debated bitterly and defeated. However, by 1929, membership had declined to several thousand members.
The original Klan was Confederate, and the reorganized Klan was Unionist, claiming most of its members in the Midwest, especially Indiana. The media has fueled the idea that the Confederate flag is the symbol of the Klan. But like most of what we learn from the media, this is a lie:
Despite its flaws, The Birth of a Nation deserves to live on for its message of tribal loyalty. Even 90 years later, it is exciting to watch. But don't bother to search for it at Blockbuster or your local library. You can find it at the online rental service Netflix, and I'm unaware of any other way to see it. Turner Classic Movies had planned to show a restored version in 1995 but canceled it in the wake of the O.J. Simpson trial verdict.
It is interesting that whites have been trained to react so viscerally against this great work of art. They can go to Westerns and cheer for white cowboys as they defeat Indians. They can cheer for Tarzan as he battles Africans. They are even impervious to the message of King Kong. But because of their public school baggage, they can't bear to watch Klansmen in anything other than a comedy. Actress Lillian Gish defended her director: "To say that [Griffith was anti-Negro] is like saying I am against children, as they were our children, whom we loved and cared for all of our lives."
Return to Little Geneva
:clap:
2004-04-15 05:44 | User Profile
confederate_commando,
A great film; every one should get a DVD of it.
The Birth of a Nation (1915) DVD $6.99-$26.96
DVD editions at amazon.com:
[url]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005J75F/[/url]
[url]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001EFTRE/[/url]
[url]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6305130949/[/url]
[url]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00007CVS7/[/url]
[QUOTE] The original Klan was Confederate, and the reorganized Klan was Unionist, claiming most of its members in the Midwest, especially Indiana. The media has fueled the idea that the Confederate flag is the symbol of the Klan.[/QUOTE]
A good point, but... I am not sue I would call the original Klan Confederate per se, their goal was not to break the South off, but to establish constitutional government in America and defeat Negro rule of South.
[QUOTE] There is no evidence whatever that it was, as the frightened Radicals immediately vowed, a second rebellion against the United States. Its members were sworn to uphold the Constitution and all constitutional laws... A few shots ringing out here and there at night, the shrilling of distant whistles, the remorseless clatter of hoofbeats up and down the lane - that was enough."[/QUOTE]
**The American's people love of the film "The Birth of a Nation" and gowth of the Neo-Klan in the North was proof that the American people had rejected the marxist ideas of the radical GOPer during "Reconstruction." The South had won the Culture War! **
But the 14th amendment of the US Constitution was bomb waiting to be set off by marxist. And the "Civil Rights" would start in 1947. The 14th amendment of the US Constitution is the root of almost all the problems we face to day!
2004-04-15 06:15 | User Profile
This was the Movie that caused the termites to meet in Chicago, when they were unable by loud protest's to stop it from being shown. As then not all our politicians where White Whore's. I read that at this meeting in 1915 or 16, that the Termites, decided no matter what the Cost, they had to have total control of this new, very powerful medium called moving pictures, and then proceeded to buy out every studio, or get at least 51% and move from there. Hooeyweird was a paradise for debotching white woman by the Camel nose's and destroying U.S. all rolled in to a big money maker! Vat a Country! As depicted in B.of N. Can you imagaine Congoids barely out of the Jungles of Africa by a generation, where they had been dragging their appendages on the ground, and now were put up in the Jackson Mississippi capital, as state representatives in 1866!. In 1914 when B.of N. was released, there were still plenty of whites left alive who lived through the horror of defeat by the union bayonet, and subjewgation...It is a Great movie, and D.W.G. the man invented the close ups other the techniques that film still uses today as posted above.. I view it once a year in April, and I'm due for showing of it this week end, ha! Interesting part of film is an add on from 1930 of D.W. Griffith with Walter Houston sitting in wing back chairs and smoking, and Walter ask D.W. if he has dime and he said yes, and Walter then presents D.W.G. with a Conderate battle sword for the dime. I first viewed B.of N in 1981 from a big rental store that had a history section, as I heard it was soooo bad and hateful I had to see what the fuss was about.. I must admit, I enjoyed ever moment of it..
2004-04-15 09:09 | User Profile
[QUOTE=confederate_commando]Despite its flaws, The Birth of a Nation deserves to live on for its message of tribal loyalty. Even 90 years later, it is exciting to watch. But don't bother to search for it at Blockbuster or your local library. You can find it at the online rental service Netflix, and I'm unaware of any other way to see it.[/QUOTE]
The library of my local community college has a copy (that's how I first saw it about 15 years ago), as I suspect many local libraries do. You can rent it from Netflix, but it might take several months to do so; there is always a "Very Long Wait" for it. You want to know the name of another film for which there is ALWAYS a "Very Long Wait?" Its "Triumph of the Will." Encouraging....
If you take a "History of Film" class, or some such, they will nearly always discuss D.W. Griffith extensively (he's one of the biggest film makers of all time, after all) and the student will likely be shown clips toward the end of the movie, such as when the Klasmen ride to the rescue of a shack full of besieged White women to the tune of Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyries." This is what exposed me to the film. I must have seen that scene in at least three classes. While its generally cited as evidence of how wicked we used to be, the student is free to interpret the facts differently....
2004-04-15 09:34 | User Profile
I showed that movie last Feb.of 03 on a 35 inch 14 year old TV to German combat vet who survied the war and was lucky enough to have been a slave in a French coal mines for three years till 1948 rather than starving, or being sent to the East block or the filthy USSR. I would like to give his name on here, but some anti white SOB could trace his name and old address as he lived a block from me. He had never seen the film, his brother and father died in the war, he was 19 in 1945... His wife was a NYC. German American who owned a gourmet restuarant before retiring. She was a true Lady, she died a few years ago. I knew his health was getting bad and though he ate well and had a giant serious garden and ate roots and herbs he was going. He had a plate in his skull, and was drinking allot in the end, but handled it. He cried slightly watching it saying all those beautiful young men slaughtered by the war with the Communists. He also said, muttered hollywood eat your heart out. He said he had her meet in the 50's and had a Leni ski photo of her and friend of his father from the thirties. He had worked in Afganist, Boliva and even Itsalie. He passed a way last Nov.. He was a Character and relished the reprints from my P.C. of story's from the [url]www.germancross.com[/url] and etc. He did read the Bolshevik main stream state paper, but never had a TV, NEVER he said, and I knew them from 88..Ha! I met them in 88! Just thought of that. He told me before he died he was glad to have known me, and someone who knew the truth of what had happened. One other thing, he did say, that until he saw the the TTW he never knew how much he respected Wolf......
2004-04-15 13:59 | User Profile
confederate_commando,
This is a good quote:
[QUOTE]"Actually, the original Klan won an important victory, although the full imposition of the Confederate ideology and the restoration of the original America did not ever come to fruition. But the original Klan ran the Union troops out of the South by 1877. This allowed the Southern states to regain control of their internal affairs. And what was their reaction to this newfound freedom? They instituted Jim Crow and saved America from the implementation of the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act for nearly 90 years.
By 1927, the President of the United States led a procession of several hundred thousand robed Klansmen down Pennsylvania Boulevard which showed how that white America had buried the hatchet from the Civil War and were committed to maintain their control over this country. But the North "broke faith" again after WWII by allowing Asians rights of citizenship and then imposing Civil Rights legislation on the South to the detriment of the entire country and Western civilization.
It took nearly 100 years for the Equalitarian religion to work its way into the American law books and policies. But once done, it has produced devastating effects for all concerned."-Dennis Wheeler
[/QUOTE]
2004-04-15 15:57 | User Profile
My dislike of the name of the movie probably stems from my having first watched it in the wonderful 1960s. Even though the nation limped along for a century before succumbing to the disease it contracted and pretended it hadn't, it should've been called 'Death of A Nation' or 'The Disengenuous Union' or 'The Snake That Pretends To Be Your Friend Until You're Comfortable Enough With It To Stick Your Head In Its Mouth'. Once established, mercantile authority was destined to be used to destroy the nation. Forestalling it actually assisted the process, by gradually removing from consciousness that lurking authority that had been surrendered to and that has since become, in the people's mind, the nation itself, God. Surely the architects of the conquest factored these things and guffawed at the naive perception that, post-reconstruction, all was well again with a unified race.
Of course I say this with hindsight, but I am disappointed with the 20th century South. As it turns out, they were no more aware of their servitude than were the northern mercenaries who conquered them.
2004-04-15 20:22 | User Profile
Oddly enough, Griffith was [I]going [/I] to call it [B]'The Snake That Pretends To Be Your Friend Until You're Comfortable Enough With It To Stick Your Head In Its Mouth' [/B] until theater owners complained it would never fit on a marquee.
2004-04-15 21:17 | User Profile
Here is another place to buy the movie from [url]www.moviesunlimited.com[/url]
[URL=http://www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/default_ie.asp?mscssid=GGN00RGC7KR58PV4V373WRX6RMLT2CW9]www.moviesunlimited.com[/URL]
[img]http://www.moviesunlimited.com/boxcovers/100_Wide/D12732.jpg[/img]
[B][COLOR=Red][SIZE=5]The Birth Of A Nation[/SIZE][/COLOR][/B] [DVD] B[/B] The landmark silent drama that defined the cinematic medium is here in its complete, uncut version. Director D.W. Griffith's sweeping, controversial look at the American South during and after the Civil War, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, stars Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh and Wallace Reid. 180 min. Silent with music score. Standard; Soundtrack: stereo score; "making of" documentary; scene access. Category: Silents Director: D.W. Griffith Cast: Spottiswoode Aitken, Mary Alden, Monte Blue, Elmer Clifton, Donald Crisp, Josephine Crowell, John Ford, Lillian Gish, Gibson Gowland, Robert Harron, Russell Hicks, Charles King, Jennie Lee, Ralph Lewis, Elmo Lincoln, Walter Long, Bessie Love, Mae Marsh, Eugene Pallette, Wallace Reid, George Siegmann, Charles Stevens, Erich von Stroheim, Henry B. Walthall, Jules White Also Available: VHS Rated: NR B&W $16.99 DVD #D12732
2004-04-16 13:42 | User Profile
Ruffin,
Yes Ruffin, I agree, but I still like the film.
[QUOTE]"My dislike of the name of the movie probably stems from my having first watched it in the wonderful 1960s. Even though the nation limped along for a century before succumbing to the disease it contracted and pretended it hadn't... mercantile authority was destined to be used to destroy the nation."-Ruffin [/QUOTE]
The book's tile was The Clansman, not push the notion of the war making America stronger or better place. This is from the film, D.W. Griffith was a Liberal just as President Wilson was.
I think we can both agree with the words of Dennis Wheeler: [QUOTE]"Actually, the original Klan won an important victory, although the full imposition of the Confederate ideology and the restoration of the original America did not ever come to fruition. But the original Klan ran the Union troops out of the South by 1877. This allowed the Southern states to regain control of their internal affairs. And what was their reaction to this newfound freedom? They instituted Jim Crow and saved America from the implementation of the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act for nearly 90 years... It took nearly 100 years for the Equalitarian religion to work its way into the American law books and policies. But once done, it has produced devastating effects for all concerned."-Dennis Wheeler [/QUOTE]
2004-04-16 15:23 | User Profile
Yes Faust, I like the film itself too (wish it'd held its original title), overall. How could I not? I understand the era and circumstances under which it was produced - it couldn't have been made any other way.
I'm also a fan of just about anything Wheeler writes. I wish he'd post at OD or somewhere I could read more of his ideas. His site is very sporadically updated.
2004-04-16 19:31 | User Profile
The Birth of a Nation is available on VHS tape @ The Scholars Bookshelf for $14.95 + s/h item#: [url]http://www.scholarsbookshelf.com/item.asp?titlesearch=Birth+of+a+Nation&userid=&pageid=1&catid=0&subjectid=0&method=search&searchmethod=simple&bargain=0&newbooks=0&starter=0&x=13&y=9&itemid=11893[/url]
[URL]www.scholarsbookshelf.com[/URL]
2004-04-17 18:44 | User Profile
For any of you familiar with the programs [url="http://www.emule-project.net/"]Emule[/url] or [url="http://www.edonkey2000.com/"]Edonkey[/url], I found a video file of [url="ed2k://%7Cfile%7CGriffith,.D.W..-.Birth.of.a.Nation,.The.avi%7C736325632%7C1D05C934891C05BE8ABD338CD8076599%7C/"][u]The Birth of A Nation[/u][/url] on the Edonkey network, and I'm downloading it now. That's one reason the Establishment wants to shut down file-sharing -- it is a means of distribution they cannot control.