The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Drama · History · War
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.
Cast
- Lillian Gish as Stoneman's Daughter Elsie
- Mae Marsh as Flora Cameron
- Henry B. Walthall as Col. Ben Cameron
- Miriam Cooper as Margaret Cameron
- Mary Alden as Stoneman's Housekeeper Lydia
- Ralph Lewis as Leader of the House Hon. Austin Stoneman
- George Siegmann as Lieut. Governor Silas Lynch
- Walter Long as Gus
- Robert Harron as Tod
- Wallace Reid as Jeff, the Blacksmith