Excerpt from the fictional film "Birth of a Nation". A pro Southern dramatization on the effect of the Civil War and the reconstruction. The Stoneman brothers departing to join their regiment. Men and women dancing in a hall after the first Battle of Bull Run. Bonfire celebrations on the street. Men and women dancing and celebrating. Some of the women watch them dancing. An old woman seated on chair in a room. A man meets and hugs a child. The child lying on a sofa.
Coal mining in the United States. Miners operate a manual coal drill. They use picks and crowbars to break coal from a coal seam. The miners load coal cars with hand shovels. They ride the loaded coal cars. A miner shoes a mule. A powerful steel cable hauls the cars to the surface. Loaded coal cars raised to the top of the elevator. They are emptied into a chute.
Drift mining in the United States. A locomotive pulls coal cars from a tunnel. The cars are emptied by dumping the coal. Miners seated aboard the locomotive.
Coal mining in the United States. Miners outside a coal mine. The miners leave the mine by exiting an elevator lift. They carry lunch pails. The miners enter a building to get cleaned up after work. Some of the miners standing inside the building, with blackened and dirty faces.
A mining community in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Exterior of an anthracite coal breaker. Men walking towards the coal breaker. Interior of the coal breaker. Work being carried on in the coal breaker.
Coal mining in the United States. Cranes and culm, banks and coal colliery machinery. A snow covered area. A man walking towards the machinery. Coal is taken out and is dumped in the area. Houses for miners. People standing outside the houses.