Movie Review

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Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 86.3 | The History Cooperative

Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery. WGBH-Boston, 1998. Four parts, 90 mins. each. (PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698)

This is a four-part documentary history of slavery in the pre- and postrevolutionary United States, terminating with the close of the Civil War. Each segment runs for ninety minutes. It was produced by WGBH in Boston; it premiered in October 1998 and has been shown since early 1999. Funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Bankers Trust, and the Farmers Bank Foundations. 1

Much time is consumed in each segment by the depiction of natural surroundings—rivers, lakes, vegetation, etc. The effect would have been improved if two ninety-minute efforts had concentrated on the reality of the African American condition and the reaction to that condition by Africans and by white people. As to the latter, attention to abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison and John Brown is adequate, though the near absence of the female component in that movement is a serious error. Defenders of slavery are absent. . . .

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