Symbolism In The Patriot
The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson, portrays the story of a South Carolina plantation owner who was hesitant to enter the American revolution, but eventually does when the British kill his son and burn down his house. Gibson’s character, Benjamin Martin, is a compilation of multiple Revolutionary War figures, including Francis Marion. Symbolism plays a large role in this film. The British in this film are made out to be evil people. This feeds into the American narrative that the British were the oppressors, and the colonists wanted freedom from the oppressive policies of their colonizers and their taxes. This symbolism isn’t accurate, however. Nearly all people in the Americas, except slaves and Indians, were British subjects at this time
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The first thing that was wrong is that the blacks who worked for both Benjamin Martin and Charlotte Selton seemed very happy and willing to work for them. In actuality, the slaves would have worked very begrudgingly, and would not have considered themselves to be freemen. To that point, the black workers who considered themselves free would not have even been allowed in the state of South Carolina. This was elaborated on in the paper “Civilizing the Colonial Subject.” South Carolina was a majority slave state, so measures had to be taken by the minority whites to keep control. Another falsehood is the flier that Martin’s men saw while getting supplies, stating that General a Washington would allow enslaved people to be free if they serve a certain amount of time with the Continental Army. As the states weren't a cohesive entity at this point, Washington wouldn't have had any standing to issue such an order. The British, however, did offer slaves freedom if they found in the British army. Another gross depiction was the British burning the church down with quite a few people inside. The person who ordered this, Colonel Tavington, was based off of Colonel Banastre Tarleton. While he was a violent person, he was not as violent as the movie depicted him to be. While there were war crimes committed by both sides, nothing would have been as awful as the church burning, and this never happened in
The first thing that was wrong is that the blacks who worked for both Benjamin Martin and Charlotte Selton seemed very happy and willing to work for them. In actuality, the slaves would have worked very begrudgingly, and would not have considered themselves to be freemen. To that point, the black workers who considered themselves free would not have even been allowed in the state of South Carolina. This was elaborated on in the paper “Civilizing the Colonial Subject.” South Carolina was a majority slave state, so measures had to be taken by the minority whites to keep control. Another falsehood is the flier that Martin’s men saw while getting supplies, stating that General a Washington would allow enslaved people to be free if they serve a certain amount of time with the Continental Army. As the states weren't a cohesive entity at this point, Washington wouldn't have had any standing to issue such an order. The British, however, did offer slaves freedom if they found in the British army. Another gross depiction was the British burning the church down with quite a few people inside. The person who ordered this, Colonel Tavington, was based off of Colonel Banastre Tarleton. While he was a violent person, he was not as violent as the movie depicted him to be. While there were war crimes committed by both sides, nothing would have been as awful as the church burning, and this never happened in