The Birth of a Nation

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.

• 
  Lillian Gish

  Stoneman's Daughter Elsie
• 
  Mae Marsh

  Flora Cameron
• 
  Henry B. Walthall

  Col. Ben Cameron
• 
  Miriam Cooper

  Margaret 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
• 
  Robert Harron

  Tod
• 
  Wallace Reid

  Jeff, the Blacksmith