The Littlest Rebel

A plantation in the South during the Civil War. The father, a Confederate officer, slips home to see his dying wife and is arrested. A Union officer takes pity and arranges an escape; both are caught and both are sentenced to death. Little Virgie and Uncle Billy set off to President Lincoln's door to ask him to intervene. The dancing between Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson is counted among the first times a white and a Black performer danced together on screen, and in some southern states the moments when their hands touched were cut out. The film also falsifies slavery completely: the enslaved are shown as devoted to their owners, contented, and uninterested in freedom. Watching it now means watching it knowing that.