Special Features
- Bonus Video: The Abolitionists, Part 1, Chapter 1
- Further Reading: Related Books and Websites
- General Article: The Film's Principal Characters
- Photo Gallery: Significant Abolitionists
- Preview: The Abolitionists Extended Preview
- Teacher's Resources: Teacher's Guides
Premiering January 8, 15 & 22, 2013. Abolitionist allies Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown and Angelina Grimké turned a despised fringe movement against chattel slavery into a force that literally changed the nation.
My American Experience
Share Your Story
What aspect of the abolitionist movement moves you the most? Is there an event you wish you could have witnessed in person? A story you love? A person you admire or can relate to? Share your story with American Experence.
Series Blog
The Characters in The Abolitionists
When we first began the task of tackling the history of abolitionism four years ago, we were faced with a daunting task: the movement spanned decades, the leaders were numerous, the history complicated and the scholarly literature voluminous. And yet there was no book that told the overarching story of the abolitionists, and no guide for capturing the courage and struggles of these remarkable civil rights heroes. We decided that the way to grab the attention of a broad television audience was to focus on a handful of key characters -- that is, to create a character-driven mini-series set against the backdrop of a tumultuous time in American history.
God Bless America and Poland Too
A nostalgic and humorous look at how old world Chicago lives side by side with the new.
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Sit Down And Fight - Walter Reuther & The UAW
In 1936, GM and Ford could not stop one of the worst battles of the American labor movement.
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The Wright Stuff
Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright built a flying machine that made its first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903.
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Sins of Our Mothers
The legendary tale of Emeline Gurney, who - as the story goes - sold an illegitimate child at the age of 14 only to marry him at a later age.
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Reconstruction - The Second Civil War
The stories of ordinary people in the tumultuous years after the Civil War, when America struggled to rebuild the Union.
Watch Trailer
Stonewall Uprising
In 1969, homosexuality was illegal in almost every state... but that was about to change. The Stonewall riots marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement.
Watch Online
Around the World in 72 Days
Intrepid journalist Nelly Bly went on a journey around the world breaking the record of Julius Verne's fictional character.
Film Details
Sister Aimee
The life story of Aimee Semple McPherson, religious evangelist instrumental in bringing conservative Protestantism into mainstream culture.
Film DetailsAdditional funding for this program was provided by
