Africans in America: WHYY

AFRICANS IN AMERICA is a landmark documentary series of four 90 minute television programs that explore the singular impact of slavery on Americans, white and black, as the new nation was forged in the two centuries following the first English settlements. The series shows how much American freedom was realized through American slavery in the nation's early years. These programs also illuminate the critical role of Africans and African Americans, slave and free, in challenging the United States to re-evaluate again and again the meaning of its founding documents and its commitment to freedom.

Map of Middle Passage and Harriet Tubman (above) courtesy of National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior

Airing On TV 12, October 19-22
AT 8 - 9:30 PM.

Photos courtesy of WGBH, Boston.
Produced for PBS by WGBH Boston
Executive Producer - Orlando Bagwell
Narrator - Angela Bassett

Program #1 - The Terrible Transformation: 1607-1750
(Airing on TV 12, Monday, Oct. 19, at 8 PM)
The program shows the English colonies offering opportunities for European settlers, including indentured servants. For Africans abducted from their homelands, however, the new land brings hard labor and a system of race-based slavery, enforced and protected by law.
Program #2 - Revolution: 1750-1805
(Airing on TV 12, Oct. 20, at 8 PM)
This program tells the story of two American revolutions: the fight for independence from Britain and the struggle of enslaved Africans for freedom. Despite its idealistic rhetoric, the new country refuses to reconcile the fact that it is a nation of liberty built on a foundation of slavery.
Program #3 - Brotherly Love: 1781-1834
(Airing on TV 12, Oct. 21 at 8 PM)
The program depicts free blacks and fugitive slaves seeking full participation in American democracy, and a new African American leadership of entrepreneurs, preachers, and abolitionists emerging throughout the North and South. In Philadelphia, freedmen and fugitive slaves press the country to live up to the promises made in its Constitution.
Program #4 - Judgment Day: 1831-1861
(Airing on TV 12, Oct. 22 at 8 PM)
In this program, the nation expands westward, and so does slavery -- even as it is challenged as never before by black and white abolitionists. Despite a political compromise which attempts to keep the country united by trading away black rights, tensions mount. A polarized nation moves toward civil war.