I am a retired American history teacher and have long loved the PBS historical documentaries. They are among the very best of their kind and have set the standard for excellence. However, even among these films, "The Abolitionists" stands above most all of them in quality and watchability. While the Burns brothers have gained greater fame than Rob Rapley, Rapley creates an even more compelling portrait of a bygone era. Using not only the usual pan and scan photos, narration and interviews with various historians, he also has actors dressed in period settings acting out what you are hearing about on the screen...and you get to hear the words of these great Americans. Short of using a time machine to jump back through the 19th century, I cannot imagine a better way to bring all this to life.
Episode one, not surprisingly, is about the birth of the abolition movement in America. Until the very late 1820s, there was no movement and two of the first signs of the movement were the abortive slave uprising led by Nat Turner as well as William Lloyd Garrison's creation of the anti-slavery newspaper, "The Liberator". Additional topics covered in the first episode include the life of the famous Southern abolitionist, Angelina Grimké, the early years of Frederick Douglas both as a slave and early abolitionist as well as the early life of John Brown. All this is told wonderfully and is a treat to watch...as are subsequent episodes.
Episode one, not surprisingly, is about the birth of the abolition movement in America. Until the very late 1820s, there was no movement and two of the first signs of the movement were the abortive slave uprising led by Nat Turner as well as William Lloyd Garrison's creation of the anti-slavery newspaper, "The Liberator". Additional topics covered in the first episode include the life of the famous Southern abolitionist, Angelina Grimké, the early years of Frederick Douglas both as a slave and early abolitionist as well as the early life of John Brown. All this is told wonderfully and is a treat to watch...as are subsequent episodes.