| Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 94.3

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| Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 94.3 | The History Cooperative

Movie Reviews

Roots of Resistance: The Story of the Underground Railroad. Dir. and prod. by Orlando Bagwell. Roja Productions, 1989, 2007. 56 mins. (WGBH Boston Video, http://shop.wgbh.org/)

This film, produced in 1989 but released on dvd in 2007, begins with the contention that liberation began in slave communities as African Americans struggled to acquire their freedom. The initial setting is Somerset Plantation in North Carolina, and the narrative by Dorothy Redford, a descendant of slaves on the plantation, is both dramatic and effective. Redford tells of the enormous amount of work slaves owned by Josiah Collins accomplished by digging canals and ditches to drain thousands of acres of land. As a result, the plantation became one of the most profitable in the state. In this early section there is also a rare voice recording, dating from the early twentieth century, of an ex-slave telling how he viewed his former condition. The historian Vincent Harding adds his eloquence to this section. In all, the discussion of slavery and the toil involved from sunup to sundown on many plantations is well done.

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