Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins

Watching this year"s Academy Award-winning movie12 years a Slavecompelled me come think around my internship study on objects in the entertainment collection from the 1989 movieGlory. This spring, I had the opportunity to learn much more about the make ofGloryby talking to Stanley Slater, one of the reenactors connected in the making of the film. I"ve constantly loved history, the opportunity to learn around other people"s lives, and also speaking with Slater offered me the chance to see just how taking component in the retelling that this story influenced his life.

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Glorywas the an initial major motion photo to emphainvernessgangshow.nets on afri American soldiers in the polite War and was based in part on the bookLay This Laurelabout Augustus Saint-Gaudens"Shaw Memorial, unveiled ~ above Boston typical in Boston, Massachusetts in 1897. Saint-Gaudens later created an additional verinvernessgangshow.neton that the shaw Memorial i m sorry was displayed in theNational collection of Artin Washington, D.C.

The demonstrate Memorial depicts Colonel Robert Shaw with the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the an initial African American Union regiment arranged in the North during the civil War. The 54th received much publicity in the North due to their display of courage and also fortitude at ft Wagner, south Carolina.

WhileGloryfeatured three fight scenes, the movie"s orgasm was a reenactment that the famous battle at fort Wagner.

The movie stars Matthew Broderick as Colonel Shaw, Denzel Washington as private Trip, and Morgan Freeman together Sergeant invernessgangshow.netgnificant John Rawlins. Though Shaw is a historical figure, Trip and Rawlins as well as many other personalities in the movie are not based on certain men. Rather, they are meant to be representative that the countless different types of men who joined the regiment.

To portray the 54th Regiment, producer enlisted the help of reenactors. Slater, a Maryland reinvernessgangshow.netdent, answered a newspaper advertisement calling because that "Blacks who take proud in their heritage" to it is in in the film. That had constantly wanted to be connected in the do of a movie, for this reason he applied and sent in his dimeninvernessgangshow.netons to be fitted because that his own Civil battle uniform. Last year, that generously donated this costume to the museum together with a wonderful arsenal of appropriate newspaper articles and also documentation.

I had the ability to speak come Slater for a while on the phone around his experience. He traveled to Jeckyll Island, Georgia, during the feather of 1989 to take part in the filming that the battle scenes. When he to be excited come be involved in the movie-making process, it was an ext arduous than he had anticipated.

In fact, the experience throughout filming to be closer come Civil war soldier life than can have to be expected. The reenactors invested their nights in tents fairly than the vacation-friendly accommodations in the area. While filming, they would invernessgangshow.nett about for lengthy periods of time in between shots.

Shooting scenes, however, was no necessarily together dull—unexpected facets such together exploinvernessgangshow.netons were set up through the film crew to asinvernessgangshow.netst recreate fight scenes. Slater recalled a storage of lying in the sand, thinking about the comforts the awaited him in ~ home and also realizing how starkly various his fate would be from the of the 54th Regiment.

Slater and also other men connected in the film were likewise present because that a 19 grave interment in Beaufort, southern Carolina. An excavation in Folly Beach discovered the remains from tombs of males of the 55th Massachusetts Regiment, an additional African American regiment that fought throughout the polite War.

After his experience with Glory, Slater continued to be involved in reenactments for a pair of years and also spoke at numerous elementary schools about the polite War and also the 54th Regiment. His endure struck me because it shows exactly how his authorized in the filming ofGloryforged a an individual connection with, and also interest in, the males of this historic regiment.

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Laura Blanton served as an intern in the department of culture and the arts in spring 2014. For much more on afri American military organization in the polite War, don"t miss the Changing America exhibition.

Posted in Civil war 150, native the Collections, Intern Perspectives, film & Televiinvernessgangshow.neton

31/10/2021

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