The Symbol of the Unconquered, 1920

The Symbol of the Unconquered (also known as The Wilderness Trail) is a 1920 silent “race film” drama produced, written and directed by Oscar Micheaux. It is Micheaux’s fourth feature-length film and along with Within Our Gates is among his earliest surviving works. The Symbol of the Unconquered was made at Fort Lee, New Jersey, and released by Micheaux on November 29, 1920. A print of the film is extant at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Plot:
Eve Mason is a “white-skinned” African American who inherits a large amount of land after the death of her grandfather Dick Mason, an old prospector. She leaves her hometown of Selma, Alabama, for the Northwest to settle in a place called Oristown. Upon arrival she decides to stay in the Driscoll Hotel but its owner, Jefferson Driscoll, a self-hating light-skinned black man, is passing as white and scorns the company of other African Americans. Driscoll forces Eve to sleep outside in his barn, where she is menaced by another black man Driscoll has sent to sleep there. Exhausted from her journey but too terrified to stay in the barn, Eve runs out into the woods, while Driscoll laughs uproariously at her distress. In the morning she meets a kind young prospector named Hugh Van Allen, who also happens to be her new neighbor. Van Allen is also African American, but doesn’t realize that Eve is too. They become fast friends and Van Allen offers Eve a ride to her new house. When they get there Van Allen continues to show kindness and helps Eve get settled into her little cabin. Before leaving he gives Eve a gun and tells her to shoot it twice if she’s ever in trouble. That way he will know to come right over.