Author Salamishah Tillet’s article titled, “How ‘The Birth of a Nation’ Silences Black Women” (October 12, 2016) discusses how Nat Turner’s new movie confers the history of slavery and American revolutionaries but ignores the sexual abuse black women endured during slavery. Tillet’s use of different types of novels, narratives, films, and background knowledge to support her reasoning. Tillet’s purpose of writing this op-ed is to educate and inform readers the discomfort and overlooked situations that black women suffered during these times. Tillet aims this article to the fans of Nat Turner’s new movie, both African-Americans and Caucasians in a hostile tone. The author explains that the movie addresses how “rape of women, black and white”
