Product Details

• Actors: Morgan Freeman
• Directors: William R. Grant
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Ambrose
• DVD Release Date: February 9, 2005
• Run Time: 240 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0007IOTJ8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,873 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HS Teacher Says 5 Stars For This Production...and For Morgan Freeman!, January 17, 2008

By 

B. S. Hobson (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Slavery and the Making of America (DVD)

I have watched and re-watched this series on PBS, and with each episode I always go away having learned something. The researchers and writers were thorough, the re-enactments are well-played*, and the tempo of each segment is appropriate. Morgan Freeman is the perfect choice for a narrator (even better than Whoopie Goldberg in Unchained Memories); he speaks like a wise, maturing uncle versed in the intricacies of a long, unpleasant family history.

My favorite segments are those on David Walker's call to resistance; a certain Miss Freeman, who successfully sued for her freedom; and Col. Tye's band of 18th century guerilla warriors.

*Such re-enactments, when accurately presented, are essential to helping viewers understand the realities of the era, as there are so few photographs and no moving pictures in existence from this lengthy period in American history. (As the narrator says, "America was a slave-holding society longer than it has been a 'free' society.")

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and very well done..., December 2, 2009

By 

R. Sharpe (Coatesville, PA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Slavery and the Making of America (DVD)

The information provided in the cds was thorough, diverse, and accurate. It gives the viewer the impression that the series was produced with the care that only serious lovers of pure history can provide. I also appreciated that the historians featured on the various cds were not solely of African American lineage. There were well-rounded views and opinions expressed.

32 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inconvenient Truth II, January 24, 2007

By 

Akbar (Denver, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slavery and the Making of America (DVD)

I watched this over and over so that I could justify using it as a teaching tool to college and HS students. I grew tired of presentations on slavery ignoring or missing America's economic gain. Therefore, I was most impressed by this PBS series mentioning it. Yes, its inconvenient to say that the Industrial Revolution would not have happened without the free labor of slaves. (oh, yes, some African/Blacks did get 40 acres and a mule but, it was taken away by a former confederate soldier who later became a government official...). Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, or even Bill Gates, hang on the coattails of the "planters" who made big money directly from African slave labor. The "planters" created the first IMAGES of superiority because they had more money, more control/power over many, and a "position." Believe me, slavery was building America's economic FUTURE not just imposing a sense of superiority. In a morbid sort of way slavery worked out pretty good for the American economy we live in today! Trust me when I say this, it means something to have an image of finacial power, even if you are poor, its the indelible IMAGE of having money, position, and power, that is most effective. A professor told me once that America is "ahistorical" I like that word. America concedes that slavery existed at one time and is over(whew!)but, the idea that some have benefitted financially, directly and indirectly from American slavery, might be an inconvenient truth. See "Centrix Financial...apologizes...slavery..." Something like that.