HIS 203: African American History I : Videos

Through stories of individuals caught in its web, the episode traces the emergence of plantation slavery in the American South and examines what the late 18th-century era of revolutions - American, French and Haitian - would mean for African Americans and slavery in America.

Black and white indentured servants were treated similarly in the 1620s. By the early 18th century, the expanding slave trade caused many colonies to adopt strict "black codes," transforming the social system into one of legal racial oppression.

A one-hour, unblinking, and fact-filled look at the real history of slavery, as revealed in "Roots." This documentary features leading historians unpacking the history behind Africa at the time of Kunte Kint, the Middle Passage, and slavery on plantations.

This film illustrates how black lives changed dramatically in the aftermath of the American Revolution. For free black people, these years were a time of opportunity, but for most African Americans, the era expanded slavery.

This classic Peabody Award–winning six-part series brings the birth of the American Republic to life through military reenactments, dramatic performances by professional actors, commentary by Revolutionary-era scholars, and eyewitness accounts of the times.

This episode explores the role of Frederick Douglass, and then looks at the impact of the Lincoln-Douglass debates on the westward expansion of slavery. It ends with Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency.

Slavery continued to support economic development from the 1740s to 1830s; but the Revolutionary War revealed the contradictions of a nation seeking independence while denying freedom to its black citizens.

This program covers the Constitutional Era, when America’s Founding Fathers became the nation’s first administrators; includes the Whiskey Rebellion (Washington), the XYZ Affair (Adams), the Louisiana Purchase (Jefferson), the War of 1812 (Madison), and the Monroe Doctrine (Monroe).

While the North develops an industrial economy and culture, the South develops a slave culture and economy, and the great rift between the regions becomes unbreachable. Professor Masur looks at the human side of the history of the mid-1800s by sketching a portrait of the lives of slave and master.

This detailed program traces the lifelong odyssey of a woman who literally walked out of bondage, changed her name in 1843, and traveled the country as an abolitionist and women’s rights advocate.

The South saw its greatest expansion of slavery as the North adopted laws to abolish it. The abolitionist movement began to gather strength, contributing to the widening fissure and imminent break-up of the nation.

Vividly bringing to life the epic struggles of the men and women who fought to end slavery, this three part series tells the intertwined stories of Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina Grimké, Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Brown.

Go beyond the legend and meet the woman who repeatedly risked her life and freedom to liberate others from slavery. One of the greatest freedom fighters in U.S. history, Tubman was an Underground Railroad conductor, a Civil War scout, nurse and spy.

Discover how a man born into slavery became one of the most influential voices for democracy in U.S. history. A gifted writer and charismatic orator, it is estimated that more Americans heard Frederick Douglass speak than any other 19th-century figure — Black or white.

This program focuses on a period marked by rapid growth for the nation and contentious politics in Washington.

This program examines the most turbulent period in all of U.S. history: when the volatile issues of states rights and slavery propelled the nation into all-out civil war.

Beginning with a searing indictment of slavery, this first episode of Ken Burns's The Civil War dramatically evokes the causes of the war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the northern abolitionists who opposed it.

'Into the Fire' examines the most tumultuous and consequential period in African-American history: the Civil War and the end of slavery, and Reconstruction's thrilling but brief 'moment in the sun.'

This archival educational film shot in 1965 examines the Civil War and Reconstruction as they affected the nation’s African-American population.

The complexities of the Civil War and Reconstruction are chronicled through the experience of slave Robert Smalls. The rise of militant groups and new segregation laws show that slavery's eradication had not ended black oppression.