| Description |
2 videodiscs (approximately 360 min.) : sound, color with black and white sequences ; 4 3/4 in. |
| System Details |
DVD, NTSC; Dolby Digital ; all regions ; 4 x 3 full screen. |
| Performer |
Narrator, Angela Bassett. |
| Credits |
Directors of photography, Michael Chin (pt.1-4), Buddy Squires (pt. 3) ; editors, Charles Scott (pt. 1, 2), Jean Boucicaut (pt. 3, 4) ; music score, Bernice Johnson Reagon. |
| Note |
Originally broadcast on television in 1998. |
|
Special DVD features include: Access to the web site, including a resource bank, teacher's Guide, and youth activity guide; chapter search; english subtitles; two bonus songs from the Africans in America soundtrack. |
| Audience |
Not rated. |
| Summary |
A four-part series portraying the struggles of the African people in America, from their arrival in the 1600s to the last days before the Civil War. The first episode, Terrible transformation, examines the origins of one of the largest forced human migrations in recorded history. After the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia in 1619, the British colonies laid the groundwork for a system of racial slavery which generated profits that ensured the colonies' growth and survival. In the second episode, Revolution, while the American colonies challenge Britain for independence, American slavery is challenged from within as men and women fight to define what America will be. When the War of Independence is won, black people, both enslaved and free, seize on the language of freedom even while the new nation's Constitution codifies slavery and oppression as a national way of life. In the third episode, Brotherly love, during the first 50 years of the new nation, freedmen and fugitive slaves in Philadelphia push the country to live up to the promises made in its Constitution. But with the invention of the cotton gin, slavery expands into America's western frontier, and a revolution in Haiti inspires slave rebellions throughout the southern United States. In the fourth and final episode, as the nation expands westward slavery becomes the most divisive issue in American life. Abolitionists struggle to bring the institution down and the nation is tested as never before. When tensions over slavery erupt into violence, Americans are forced to consider how long the country can continue as a democracy built on the profits of bondage. |
| Contents |
Disc one. The Terrible transformation [(1450-1750)] / produced and directed by Orlando Bagwell, Susan Bellows ; Revolution [(1750-1805)] / produced and directed by W. Noland Walker -- Disc two. Brotherly love [(1791-1831)] / produced and directed by Jacquie Jones ; Judgment day [(1831-1865)] / produced and directed by Llewellyn Smith. |
| Awards |
"Peabody Award winner." |
| Note |
Related to: Africans in America : America's journey through slavery / Charles Johnson, Patricia Smith, WGBH Series Research Team. -- New York : Harcourt Brace, c1998. |
| Language |
Closed-captioned in English. |
| Note |
GMD: videorecording. |
| Subject |
Slavery -- United States -- History.
|
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Slavery -- United States -- History -- 17th century.
|
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Slavery -- Economic aspects -- United States -- History -- 17th century.
|
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Slavery -- Virginia -- History.
|
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Slavery -- Economic aspects -- Virginia -- History.
|
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African Americans -- History -- To 1863.
|
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Slavery -- Justification.
|
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United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.
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Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.
|
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African Americans. (OCoLC)fst00799558
|
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Slavery. (OCoLC)fst01120426
|
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Slavery -- Economic aspects.
(OCoLC)fst01120438
|
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Slavery -- Justification.
(OCoLC)fst01120462
|
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United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
|
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Virginia. (OCoLC)fst01204597
|
| Chronological Term |
To 1863
|
| Genre/Form |
Documentary television programs.
|
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Historical television programs.
|
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Nonfiction television programs.
|
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Television mini-series.
|
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Television programs -- United States.
|
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Video recordings for the hearing impaired.
|
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History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
|
| Added Author |
Bagwell, Orlando. Producer. Director.
|
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Smith, Llewellyn.
|
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Bellows, Susan. Producer. Director.
|
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Fayer, Steve, 1935- Screenwriter.
|
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Bassett, Angela. Narrator.
|
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Walker, W. Noland. Producer. Director.
|
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Jones, Jacquie, 1965- Producer. Director.
|
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Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 1942- Composer.
|
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Johnson, Charles, 1948-
|
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WGBH (Television station : Boston, Mass.)
|
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WGBH Educational Foundation.
|
| Added Title |
America's journey through slavery |
|
Africans in America (Television program)
|
| ISBN |
157807553X |
| Standard No. |
783421323094 |
| Music No. |
WG999 WGBH Education Foundation |
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