The Birth of a Nation is a strange title for this movie when you think about it. It's not like it's about the Revolutionary War or anything.

We do get a few hints at its meaning, however. Here's the first:

Reconstruction. The agony which the South endured that a nation might be born.

The second comes during Ben and Elsie's honeymoon. Check it out:

Liberty and union, one and inseparable, now and forever!

Oddly, these two captions seem to imply that the United States didn't truly become a nation until after the Civil War. Weird, huh? This is based on Griffith's belief that, prior to the conflict, individual states held the most power. After the war, however, the federal government gained control.

It also seems to imply that the Ku Klux Klan itself is partially responsible for this "founding," which is both bizarre and offensive. Still, it seems to be what Griffith is implying, suggesting a twisted, racist way forward for the development of our country.