The Birth of a Nation

• 6.0 Drama
• 1915-02-08
• 193 minutes mins

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.

Starring:

Henry B. Walthall (Col. Ben Cameron) Lillian Gish (Stoneman's Daughter Elsie) Miriam Cooper (Margaret Cameron) Mae Marsh (Flora Cameron) Mary Alden (Stoneman's Housekeeper Lydia) Ralph Lewis (Leader of the House Hon. Austin Stoneman) George Siegmann (Lieut. Governor Silas Lynch) Walter Long (Gus) Joseph Henabery (Abraham Lincoln) Wallace Reid (Jeff, the Blacksmith)

Director:

D.W. Griffith

Writer:

D.W. Griffith Frank E. Woods