The Birth of a Nation Power Quotes

How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation.

Quote #7

BEN: The case was tried before a negro magistrate and the verdict rendered against the whites by the negro jury.

Oh, the horror. Griffith seems to have a problem with Black people being placed into positions of power over white people no matter the circumstances, which highlights the intense racism that saturates The Birth of a Nation.

Quote #8

AUSTIN STONEMAN: We will crush the white South under the heel of the black South.

While this is another thoroughly inaccurate historical nugget courtesy of Griffith, it's another way of expressing his feeling that white people have lost power after the Civil War.

Quote #9

INTERTITLE: Townsmen enlisted in the search of the accused Gus, that he may be given a fair trial in the dim halls of the Invisible Empire.

Okay, so trying a white man in an all-Black court is immoral, but trying a Black man in an all-white court with no official power and a stated mission of subjugating Black people is A-Okay? It's clear by now that Griffith's ideology is that white people inherently belong in a position of power over everyone else.