TV Series Explores Impact of Slavery on US History
http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=B8CDDD:2F72C9DThe four hour series Slavery and the Making of America seeks to dispel
myths and highlight little known facts by interweaving scholarly
commentary with narration by movie star Morgan Freeman as actors
dramatize scenes from history
Photo of actor portraying Nat Turner in PBS' Slavery and the Making of
AmericaPhoto Courtesy PBS.orgIn honor of Black History Month, public
television stations across the United States are showing a new series
chronicling the history of slavery and its economic impact on the
United States. Much of the new information in the series grew
out of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
The four hour series, Slavery and the Making of America seeks to
dispel myths and highlight little known facts by interweaving
scholarly commentary with narration by movie star Morgan Freeman as
actors dramatize scenes from history.
The opening hour of the series focuses on Africans brought to the
colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. James Horton, professor of
American Studies at George Washington University, is co-author of the
companion book to the series. He says many people are surprised to
discover the first African immigrants were not slaves, but were
indentured servants.
"They would sell their service for a number of years, most often about
seven years," he explains. "But the most important thing is
there was an end to it and it was not passed on to your children."
The Civil Rights movement spurred a new generation of historians to
explore African American history and dig deeper into long overlooked
historical documents concerning slaves, including court records and
federal archives.
The slave community was not monolithic as it is often portrayed.
Slaves came from different nations and diverse cultures and religions
in Africa. Many first generation slaves could not even communicate
with each other because they spoke different languages
Deeper research, Professor Horton says, revealed the complexity of the
slave community.
"For example, female slave had issues that they had to deal with that
male slaves did not necessarily," he notes. "We started to learn
more about children who were slaves, more about the relationship
between slaves and free blacks."
Slavery and the Making of America focuses on individuals, telling the
stories of slaves who sought to change their conditions. One of these
was Mum Bett, a domestic worker in the northeastern colony of
Massachusetts at the time of the American Revolution. Mum Betts' story
demonstrates that although the northern and southern states fought a
bloody civil war over slavery from 1861 until 1865, northerners at one
time owned slaves also. Mum Betts sued for her freedom in court and
won.
PROGRAM NARRATOR: "Revolution and the rhetoric of liberty were
in the air. Mumm Bett and others like her would soon begin to exhale
this new language."
PROGRAM NARRATOR: "The natural liberty of man is to be free."
The Civil War is the backdrop for one of the most dramatic stories in
the series, the escape of Robert Smalls. He was a slave who worked on
ships docked in Charleston, South Carolina during the Civil War.
"He and a number of his fellows and their families went aboard a ship
named the Planter after the work was finished and they sailed that
ship out of Charleston Harbor passed the Confederate defenses and
eventually delivered the ship to the U.S. Navy," says Mr.
Horton. "In fact, when he arrived he said to the U.S. forces
that greeted him "I thought Old Abe might be able to use the Planter."
The series chronicles the economic impact of slavery on the United
States and on Europe, where cotton produced in the South helped fuel
the Industrial Revolution. Professor Horton calls slavery the main
event of U.S. economic history, starting with the production of
tobacco and rice in the southern colonies.
"As we move into the 19th century and as the United State starts to
expand to the west, slavery expanded into that area and that area
became very important for cotton growing," he adds. "Now cotton
was tremendously important in terms of the economic development of the
nation. By 1815, cotton was the most valuable thing that the
entire nation exported to the world. By 1840, cotton was more
valuable than everything that the United States of America exported to
the world put together. So slave labor starts to provide the basis of
the economy of the nation."
Information on the series can be found in the companion book, also
called Slavery and the Making of America, and on DVD and the PBS
website.