Introduction

Sangaree is a movie set in Savannah, Georgia at the end of the American Revolution.

1. Carlos Morales, a son of indentured servants, and Nancy Darby, the daughter of general Darby, became rivals over the general's estate of Sangaree.
2. As they fought, news of pirates and a plague arose, which were taken care of by Morales.
3. The two understood that the general wanted them to be married, and they ended up living together in the estate of Sangaree.

The critique will analyze three themes related to the American Revolution from the movie: indentured servants, strong will, and plague.

Body

Indentured Servants

On a boat to a prom, Carlos said to the undercovered Nancy that his father sold himself for 7 years to come to America from Spain.
This sentence is historically accurate because indentured servants worked as unpaid laborers under a fixed term of a few years, could be bought or sold as private property, and made up most of the white settlers that arrived in America before the revolution (Llewellyn).
Also, Guaso stated that a lot of non-English servants arrived during the colonial period, which could explain Carlos as a child of indentured servants when the British surrendered in 1781.

Strong Will

At the first scene, general Victor Darby told Carlos that he wanted those with a strong will to manage the Sangaree estate.
The line is historically accurate in regards to the role of strong will in leadership.
During the American Revolution, George Washington demonstrated a strong will and determination to get a victory when crossing the Delaware, achieving it through a surprise attack (Lass).
This shows that having a strong will can lead to a successful leadership.
In addition, the Civil War Trust said that America's display of determination caused France to join America in the American Revolution.
This further expresses the idea that strong will is viewed as a very crucial quality that brings people together in the American Revolution.

Plague

In a scene during the prom, Dr. Bristols said to Carlos that even experienced doctors know that plague and other epidemic diseases are caused by miasma.
During the time around the American Revolution, smallpox was a widespread epidemic thought to be caused by miasma, but medical treatises show that some scientists thought miasmatic theories play a minor role in epidemics (Eriksen).
This supports the fragment about the miasma, but makes the one about experienced doctors partially inaccurate.
Additionally, miasma theories gradually shifted to germ theories in the 19th centuries, several years after the American Revolution (Nicholson), which supports the idea that epidemic diseases were widely thought to be caused by miasma at the time of the movie.
Other than miasma, another scene shows Carlos speaking in a meeting, saying that people had known for 200 years that plague occurs only where rats exist.
According to Roberts, there was actually a major plague that occurred in London, 1563, around 200 years prior to the end of the American Revolution.
Furthermore, Roberts also stated that many deaths from the plague in 1592 were found in rat-infested slums, supporting the idea that rats contributed to the spread of plague.

Conclusion

To wrap up, several scenes shown throughout the movie Sangree were compared to the history.

The three themes analyzed in the movie, which were indentured servants, strong will, and plague, were overall historically accurate to America at the time set in the movie.

Thus, Sangaree is a historically accurate movie about life in Savannah at the end of the American Revolution.