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The use of melodrama in Birth of a Nation included many larger-than-life stereotypical characters that would be used for years to come in literature and film. Many other works went on to appropriate figures such as the Chaste Southern Belle (Little Sister in Birth of a Nation) who was, as a result of reconstruction policies, endangered by the trope of the dangerous black male sexual body She was often child-like, innocent and observant of her place in society , in accordance with the cult of true womanhood. The Southern Gentleman (Little Colonel in Birth of a Nation) was portrayed as the saviour of the