Ron Maxwell is the director of the upcoming film “Copperhead,” which is due out this summer. “Copperhead” tells the story of one family’s struggle with faith, freedom, and the idea of fighting during the Civil War.
Ron Maxwell is the director of the upcoming film “Copperhead,” which is due out this summer. “Copperhead” tells the story of one family’s struggle with faith, freedom, and the idea of fighting during the Civil War.
The Christian Post: How did you learn of the term “Copperhead” and how does it specifically apply to the film?
Maxwell: The term actually comes from the fact that the Copperhead is a Southern snake; Northerners would wear a copper penny as a badge of honor. It became the most used term in the North for those against the war. It’s not that they were pro-slavery; they simply did not want to participate or believe in the Civil War. I didn’t actually read the novel that the movie is based on (“The Copperhead”). The author wrote a lot about where he grew up; I call him the Charles Dickens of upstate New York.
I’d heard the term years and years ago but wasn’t focused on it, referred to anti-war Democrats in the North during the Civil War. I knew more layers of that history, that certain U.S. elected representatives were very vociferous in their opinions about the war. In 1862, the zenith of the Copperhead movement, they were elected mayors, leaders … Lincoln may have been defeated in the fall of 1862 had there been a presidential election in the fall of 1862.
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