The Birth of a Nation

Name: The Birth of a Nation
Director: D.W. Griffith
Genre: Drama, History, War
Released: 1915-03-08
Duration: 3 h 13 min
Rating: 5.951
Cast: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, Mary Alden

“The Fiery Cross of the Ku Klux Klan!”

1915

3h 13m

Drama History War

Director: D.W. Griffith

Writers: Frank E. Woods, D.W. Griffith

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Overview

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.