This series of four 90 minute programs explores the impact of slavery on Americans from the first English settlement in 1607 to the brink of civil war in 1861. The English colonies bring opportunities for European settlers, including indentured servants, but for Africans, abducted from their homelands, this new land brings hard labour and a system of race-based slavery, enforced and protected by law. The new country refuses to reconcile the fact that it is a nation of liberty built on a foundation of slavery. As free blacks and fugitive slaves seek full participation in American democracy, a new African American leadership of entrepreneurs, preachers, and abolitionists emerge throughout the North and South. As the country expands west, so does slavery.
Tensions mount and a polarized nation moves toward civil war.
Includes teacher's guide. S Cloaked in darkness since medieval times, the spectacular ruins of the once dazzling, southern African kingdom of Great Zimbabwe posed a dilemma for white settlers who claimed to have discovered the region a hundred years before. Trek inland to the remote site of Great Zimbabwe, a fabulous lost city which reached the height of its glory in the 14th century. Then uncover the culture of Africa's Swahili Coast, the wealthy centre of the thriving gold and ivory trades until the 16th century. Now the cities lie forgotten, buried under centuries of indifference.