October 15th 2016

 On a regular Saturday night, I, along with two of my friends, decided to go see Birth of a Nation. I had never seen the trailer nor had I heard about the movie so I had no expectations what so ever. I went blindly into the theatre hoping that the money spent would be worth it.

 This movie was a very powerful and deep movie. It revolved around a black Baptist preacher, by the name of Nat Turner, who was a slave and was forced to preach to other slaves ensuring that they obeyed their masters. It started off by showing his younger days and how he originally came from Africa. In his innocence as a child he did not know that his friend which was white, would one day become his master. He learned how to read and was eventually able to understand the Bible. He began preaching to his fellow captives and eventually the word got out of his abilities. Knowing that this preacher’s words were persuasive, the overseers realized they could profit from this and made him preach to other plantations in their favor for a price. He endured the agony, knowing fully well that the words coming out his mouth were not the truth and were not his. Even in the midst of the brutality he still had to preach in the favor of the whites.

 He then realized that he could no longer continue to lie to his people and fire sparked within him. The time had come to revolt. He gathered a group of slaves and they massacred the owners. They escaped the plantation gathering more followers and liberating more slaves. Although they were not successful in completing their revolt they made it known that it was possible for slaves to be liberated.