This program reviews how the American nation became divided in the nineteenth century with slavery at the center of the dissension. Four million black Americans were slaves, and the nation had been slow in responding in kind to the abolition of slavery that had occurred in Great Britain in 1831.
By mid-century, America had not only caught up with the European nations in the Industrial Revolution, but surpassed them substantially. It should have been apparent that slavery was a dying institution. But greed and lack of vision ultimately led to the great divide.
American ingenuity was on display in the superhuman achievement of the Erie Canal. The program demonstrates how even an enormous limestone wall could not deter progress and thwart the pet project of New York governor DeWitt Clinton, whose "big ditch" transformed the American economy with a new mode of transporting goods.
In the South, King Cotton ruled due to another technological advance, the cotton gin. By 1850, the South was producing three-fourths of the world's cotton. But far from the lessening the need for slaves, the South was relying even more on slave labor for cotton production.
Harriet Tubman is important more as a symbol for the abolition of slavery than the actual accomplishments of her Underground Railroad. In the final month of her life, Rosa Parks is born.
In the best scene in the program, Frederick Douglass is riding on a train and afraid that the conductor may have him arrested as a runaway slave. But when a restive chicken begins to cackle, the conductor turns away and does not carefully examine Douglass's papers. For Douglass, it was a turning point in his life.
The program closes with October 1859 the raid on the Harper's Ferry arsenal in Virginia by abolitionist John Brown. Brown's five sons die, and he is later executed. In the North, he is seen as a martyr, and in the South, is a terrorist. His hanging occurs on December 2, 1859.
As was the case for Donald J. Trump, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 left the country divided with many in the South refusing to accept Lincoln as president. It was now up to Lincoln to accomplish two tasks--keep the Union together and finally address the slavery issue. Thomas Jefferson had likened the institution of slavery to "a firebell in the night." By 1861, the firebell was ringing.
By mid-century, America had not only caught up with the European nations in the Industrial Revolution, but surpassed them substantially. It should have been apparent that slavery was a dying institution. But greed and lack of vision ultimately led to the great divide.
American ingenuity was on display in the superhuman achievement of the Erie Canal. The program demonstrates how even an enormous limestone wall could not deter progress and thwart the pet project of New York governor DeWitt Clinton, whose "big ditch" transformed the American economy with a new mode of transporting goods.
In the South, King Cotton ruled due to another technological advance, the cotton gin. By 1850, the South was producing three-fourths of the world's cotton. But far from the lessening the need for slaves, the South was relying even more on slave labor for cotton production.
Harriet Tubman is important more as a symbol for the abolition of slavery than the actual accomplishments of her Underground Railroad. In the final month of her life, Rosa Parks is born.
In the best scene in the program, Frederick Douglass is riding on a train and afraid that the conductor may have him arrested as a runaway slave. But when a restive chicken begins to cackle, the conductor turns away and does not carefully examine Douglass's papers. For Douglass, it was a turning point in his life.
The program closes with October 1859 the raid on the Harper's Ferry arsenal in Virginia by abolitionist John Brown. Brown's five sons die, and he is later executed. In the North, he is seen as a martyr, and in the South, is a terrorist. His hanging occurs on December 2, 1859.
As was the case for Donald J. Trump, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 left the country divided with many in the South refusing to accept Lincoln as president. It was now up to Lincoln to accomplish two tasks--keep the Union together and finally address the slavery issue. Thomas Jefferson had likened the institution of slavery to "a firebell in the night." By 1861, the firebell was ringing.
