This program begins with William T. Sherman's brilliant March to the Sea, which brought the war to the heart of Georgia and the Carolinas and spelled the end of the Confederacy. It continues with Lincoln's second inauguration, the fall of Petersburg and then Richmond to Grant's army, and the westward flight of Lee's tattered Army of Northern Virginia to a tiny crossroads town called Appomattox Court House, where the dramatic and deeply moving surrender...

Between 1790 and 1860, thousands of slaves fled the South for liberation on the "Underground Railroad," a system of invisible tracks and anonymous conductors who gave shelter to fugitive slaves. Through interviews with national experts, and examination of archival records and artifacts, this program provides an overview of the underground movement. In addition to interviews with descendants of slaves, conductors, and abolitionists, the program includes...

Although slavery was abolished in New York State on July 4th, 1827, America's slave-based cotton trade was not, as bales from the South continued to enter New York City for transshipment to Europe. In this program, James Oliver Horton, historian emeritus at the Smithsonian, talks with NewsHour correspondent Gwen Ifill about slavery's impact on New York City during the first half of the 19th century. Economically dependent on King Cotton, it was a...

Obscured by competing images stemming from popular and revisionist history, the real Abraham Lincoln can be difficult to know. In this program, three leading American historians-Pulitzer Prize-winner David Herbert Donald, of Harvard University; Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Boorstin, of the Library of Congress; and Eric Foner, of Columbia University-join syndicated columnist and author Ben Wattenberg to separate the man from the mystery by exploring...

In 1865, the laying down of arms was just the beginning of the long battle for equal rights facing African-Americans. After documenting the final months of the War Between the States-Lincoln's second inauguration, Sherman's march through the Carolinas, the Siege of Petersburg, the destruction of Richmond, General Lee's surrender at Appomattox, and Lincoln's assassination-this program considers the outcome of the war and its cost, Reconstruction, the...

The great abolitionist Frederick Douglass comes back to life in this acclaimed theatrical performance featuring Fred Morsell, as he dramatically re-creates Douglass's famous speech on slavery and human rights. With an eloquence and intelligence rarely matched, Frederick Douglass became a giant in the struggle against racial injustice. He called upon all Americans of every color to work to fulfill the vision of a just society that was proclaimed in...

For decades in the 19th century, Apache tribes resisted the westward advance of the pioneers and the threat they posed to traditional ways of life. Fighting the longest was Geronimo - one of the most famous, feared, and misunderstood Native American warriors in history. Geronimo and the Apache Resistance, from the PBS American Experience collection, separates myth from reality in the tragic collision of two cultures with dramatically different views...

This program examines the legal issues relevant to the 13th Amendment and the controversy surrounding its passage. Legal experts explain the basis of the debate; historical reenactments of those debates provide viewers with insights into its social and economic underpinnings.

Burdened by a tragic family life, suicidal urges, and unsettled sexuality, Abraham Lincoln was able to employ his powerful wit and innate charm to transform his inner demons. Filmed as if through the president's own eyes, this episode of Biography captures the dark soul behind one of history's brightest lights. Interviews with leading Lincoln biographers such as Gore Vidal, Jan Morris, and Harold Holzer are also included.

Continuing to trace guests' lineages back through the late 1800s to the Civil War and earlier, this program features stories like that of Chris Rock's maternal great-great-grandfather, Julius Caesar Tingman, a black Civil War veteran who was twice elected to the South Carolina State Legislature; and Don Cheadle's ancestors, who had been enslaved by Chickasaw Indians and brought to Oklahoma on the tail end of the Trail of Tears-the mass relocation...