Slavery and the Making of America

Narrated by Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman, the four-part PBS series Slavery and the Making of America is a serious, somber, and--initially--somewhat slow recounting of the shameful history of America's "peculiar institution," told through a combination of dramatic reenactments and scholarly interviews. In the opening episode, "The Downward Spiral," which covers 1619-1739, we learn that the first Africans arrived in 1624, and that within a few generations, racially-based slavery had replaced indentured servitude (which was colorless), with the end result that blacks were no longer treated as servants, but rather as property with no rights. The first hour ends on a dramatic note with the story of the bloody Stono slave rebellion in South Carolina (which sent major shockwaves throughout the planter community, although by this time white men were regularly carrying guns to church, as Sunday was the slaves' only day off). The series picks up considerably with the second episode, "Liberty in the Air," chronicling the period from the 1740s through the 1830s, during which slavery became an integral aspect of the South's economy, as well as a woeful illustration of the shortcomings of the new nation's Declaration of Independence credo that "all men are created equal" (as scholar James Oliver Horton points out about the Declaration's slave-owning author, "Jefferson is so like America herself in contradiction"). In the third and fourth episodes, covering the period from the early 1800s through the end of Reconstruction in 1877, the focus shifts from broader history to representative individual stories drawn from slave narratives, particularly the amazing lives of Harriet Jacobs (a woman who hid for years in an attic before escaping to freedom in the North) and Robert Smalls (who went from being a slave to becoming a Civil War hero and later a U.S. Congressman). Ultimately, the series deftly balances strong personal stories with insights into the horrible symbiotic relationship between Northern growth and Southern slavery ("the lords of the loom and the lords of the lash"), while also casting key historical events in a new light (for instance, we tend to unequivocally celebrate the Louisiana Purchase--forgetting that it actually expanded slavery into four new states). A fine complement to the excellent Africans in America (VL-1/99), this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)