AllMovie

This two-volume documentary examines the history of slavery in the American South during the era leading up to the Civil War -- with a special focus on slavery's effects on black individuals and families and their varying responses to the conditions of enslavement. Other topics discussed are the ways in which the nation was torn apart by differing political and economic ambitions and ideologies, the effects of slavery on politics and military tactics, and attempts that were made in the century that followed the war to reunify the nation and strengthen civil rights.