On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Glory brought the 54th Massachusetts to modern audiences, Robert Gould Shaw felt the pull of a story that had already begun to shape him. A quiet moment with Uncle Tom’s Cabin set him on a path that would place him at the head of one of the first Black Civil War regiments to see combat. The challenges he faced, the men who followed him, and the final march that secured the regiment’s legacy all unfolded long before the cameras arrived. Kirk Higgins of the Bill of Rights Institute traces how Shaw grew into the leader remembered today and how the history of the 54th Regiment continues to echo through the telling of the war.

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