Glory Essay
Hist 111
“Glory” Paper
At the beginning of the movie “Glory” there is an obvious segregation between whites and blacks, captain Shaw seemed to be of the vast minority that treated African American’s with some sort of decency. Shaw was hard on his men but only because he wanted them to be great soldiers. The overall attitude towards African American’s is what you would expect from the time. Most white men look at themselves as far superior as the black men. Even though the African Americans have volunteered to risk their lives as soldiers, they still all feel basically as slaves and tread lightly around officers. Captain Shaw along with the rest of the white men in the camp have a hard time relating at all to the black men because of how different their lives were up to that point.. Captain Shaw believes highly in treating all men equally, unlike the rest of his white counterparts. I believe a turning point around camp in attitudes towards the black troops is when Shaw stands up for his black regiment and gets them all shoes after the North refused to give them shoes. As well as when he rips up his pay stub when the regiment finds out the black soldiers will be paid less than the promised $13 a month standard pay for a soldier. A slight sense of respect begins to build as the men go on through their training, and going against orders the officers promote Morgan Freeman’s character to an un-commissioned officer. At this point in the movie the men find out that they are now not the only African American regiment to be fighting for the north. However the black men soon find out that they will most likely never see the battlefield, and only used for manual labor for the North, which demoralizes the entire regiment. All the black soldiers want to do is fight and gain respect. In response captain Shaw puts in an order to be transferred to fighting status and is granted such. With the 54ths first victory in battle, respect and moral is high, and a
“Glory” Paper
At the beginning of the movie “Glory” there is an obvious segregation between whites and blacks, captain Shaw seemed to be of the vast minority that treated African American’s with some sort of decency. Shaw was hard on his men but only because he wanted them to be great soldiers. The overall attitude towards African American’s is what you would expect from the time. Most white men look at themselves as far superior as the black men. Even though the African Americans have volunteered to risk their lives as soldiers, they still all feel basically as slaves and tread lightly around officers. Captain Shaw along with the rest of the white men in the camp have a hard time relating at all to the black men because of how different their lives were up to that point.. Captain Shaw believes highly in treating all men equally, unlike the rest of his white counterparts. I believe a turning point around camp in attitudes towards the black troops is when Shaw stands up for his black regiment and gets them all shoes after the North refused to give them shoes. As well as when he rips up his pay stub when the regiment finds out the black soldiers will be paid less than the promised $13 a month standard pay for a soldier. A slight sense of respect begins to build as the men go on through their training, and going against orders the officers promote Morgan Freeman’s character to an un-commissioned officer. At this point in the movie the men find out that they are now not the only African American regiment to be fighting for the north. However the black men soon find out that they will most likely never see the battlefield, and only used for manual labor for the North, which demoralizes the entire regiment. All the black soldiers want to do is fight and gain respect. In response captain Shaw puts in an order to be transferred to fighting status and is granted such. With the 54ths first victory in battle, respect and moral is high, and a