The Patriot
A former hero of the French and Indian War, Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) has renounced fighting forever to raise his family in peace. Although once a sly, efficient and ferocious soldier, he marries a fine woman who bears him seven children and, under her influence, trades his violent past for a peaceful future on his expansive plantation. A dedicated family man, Martin is not anxious to return to battle. Recently widowed, he has different goals now. He is the sole caretaker of his children, and the horrors of past combat still haunt him. "If you're asking whether I'm willing to go to war with England, the answer is no. I've been to war, and I have no desire to do so again," says Martin in an emotional address to the Charleston Assembly. "I have seven children. My wife is dead. Who's to care for them if I go to war?" Benjamin's eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), harbors no such doubts. The radical speeches, pamphlets and newsletters that begin in the cities and pews and traverse the Colonies make an impression on the young man. War is coming, and the cause, he feels, is just. In rebelliousness of his father, Gabriel joins the fight. Benjamin Martin is conflicted- as burly as he is in his opposition to the war, he believ
Initially there were only a few rice grains available for seed; after the first year's crop, rice grew abundantly with minimal tending. South Carolina consists of swampy lowlands in the southern portion of the state with hilly, rolling highlands in the upper portion. This is probably the most important inaccuracy in the movie. The only discrepancy was that all the slaves on Martin's plantation were free. The roles that women portrayed in The Patriot, including the participation of women during the Revolution appear to be historically accurate. In 1741-1742, indigo was introduced in South Carolina. This invention alone made cotton economically feasible. However, the large cotton plantations and the field slaves are a little ahead of their time. After numerous failures, South Carolina finally found export crops---rice and indigo. The scenes with the slaves working the fields are historically accurate, but the major crop grown in that region of South Carolina would have been rice or indigo. Women during the Revolution were even more active than just speaking out. The movie reveals much about how women were viewed and the positions that they held within their communities in a Southern colony during the American Revolution. Some landowners such as George Washington, freed their slaves, but many did not. At first, due to a lack of expertise, colonial indigo was inferior in quality to that produced in France.
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Acceptance Essays
