This earliest surviving feature by an African-American filmmaker confronts issues beyond the scope of Hollywood studio productions and what the industry once labeled “race movies.” After a good crop, share-cropper Jaspar Landry and his educated adopted daughter, Sylvia, prepare a bill to present to plantation owner Philip Girdlestone. Efrem, a troublemaker, tells Girdlestone that Landry is not only educating his children but also plans to dispute the landowner’s figures. The meeting ends with Girdlestone dead and Landry standing over the body holding a smoking revolver. In delineating scenes of lynching and white-on-black rapes (which caused much controversy with the censors), the film can be seen as a historically valid response to D.W. Griffith’s racist landmark film Birth of a Nation.