Jasmine Eccles Ms.Clarke April 26, 2023 African American History Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation tells the story of Nat Turner, a Virginia slave and Baptist preacher who led an uprising in 1831. Nat knew how to read and write and grew up reading the bible. This opened doors for him in the future allowing him to preach to other slaves to make Samuel his owner's money. While Nat was traveling to preach he realizes the severity of the bondage that holds him as he witnesses some horrific gruesome treatment towards other slaves. The inhumane treatment he sees sparks something in him and he decides that he can't Turner’s Uprising, claiming more than 50 before he is eventually caught and hung. Nat believed that he was chosen to lead the rebellion …show more content…
It makes you want to cry, turn your head, look away, and step out of the room which is all understandable considering the severity of some of the scenes. For me, the scene that had the greatest amount of impact on me was the scene where Nat went to preach at another slave master's house. They went to a shed in the back of the house and when Not entered there were men shackled and chained up. They were starving and the slave owners touted them and asked if they were hungry yet. Upon no reply, they forced a slave's mouth open and chiseled at their teeth until they broke. The slave owners force-fed the slave their feces with a shovel til it was dripping out of their mouths. This scene hit home with me, it opened my eyes to not only how cruel and brutal the owners could be. Not only this but also how slaves would go as far as trying to pass from starvation to escape slavery. This was the scene that sparked Nat's drive to free slaves from the bondage of white tyrants. Nat was brainwashed from the day they started teaching him to read and write that they were right and that slaves were to subject themselves to whatever the owners pleased. Nat was taught to read the bible, but it was corrupt and not the true word, but a slave bible that read that slaves should obey their …show more content…
It's important to not only show the plantations of hundreds of slaves forced to work against their will but also the inhumane treatment, and the mental and physical abuse they endured. The film accomplished its overall goal of opening the viewer treatment slaves faced. From when Esther was raped by a white man, to when Nat found that Cherry had been attacked and assaulted by a group of men. The film did an amazing job portraying emotions through the character's facial expressions, as well as the music and color choices in specific scenes. The humiliation and shame Esther felt were heartbreaking to watch and the music and dark colors in the scene made the time even sadder and more impactful. The look of pain and agony Hark had knowing what was happening to his wife, but he couldn't stop it without risking Hark or death to himself or her. Some scenes were really heavy like when Cherry had been attacked and assaulted by a group of men. You just stop breathing for a second already assuming the worse is going to happen, but it made me realize how often this happened during this time. Despite these hardships and battles Nat and his family faced he stayed strong believing in the word of God and that God would make a way. Between families being split up females were raped, whipped,