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As the 18th century dawned on the North American continent, four powers - the French, the Spanish, the British and the Native Americans were competing to see who would control this remarkable land. However, after half a century of almost continuous wars, a new entity emerged: The Americans.

As the 18th century dawned on the North American continent, four powers - the French, the Spanish, the British and the Native Americans were competing to see who would control this remarkable land. However, after half a century of almost continuous wars, a new entity emerged: The Americans.

As the 18th century dawned on the North American continent, four powers - the French, the Spanish, the British and the Native Americans were competing to see who would control this remarkable land. However, after half a century of almost continuous wars, a new entity emerged: The Americans.

As the 18th century dawned on the North American continent, four powers - the French, the Spanish, the British and the Native Americans were competing to see who would control this remarkable land. However, after half a century of almost continuous wars, a new entity emerged: The Americans.

Program 1: Settling the New World and the Founding of the United States of America - Includes: 1619-1621 - Blacks Arrive in Jamestown; 1705- The Virginia General Assembly Passes the Slave Codes; 1762- Entrepreneur Samuel Frances Opens New York City's Frances Tavern; 1770 - Crispus Attacks the Black Patriots.

Program 3: The Fight For Freedom, includes: 1851 - Sojourner Truth Delivers "Ain't I a Woman?" Speech; 1854 - First Black university founded - Lincoln University; 1855 - Frederick Douglas publishes "My Bondage and My Freedom"; 1857 - Dred Scott decision helps trigger the Civil War; 1863 - Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation; 1863 - Black Regiment Storms Fort Wagner in the Civil War; 18

Program 5: The Foundation For Equality - includes: 1904- Scott Joplin and Ma Rainey initiate the merger of two cultures; 1909 - Matthew Henson Discovers the North Pole; 1909- W.E.B. DuBois founds the NAACP; 1924 - George Washington Carver - Renaissance Man; 1925 - Alain Locke leads Harlem Renaissance; 1926 - Satchel Paige stars in the National Negro Baseball League.

Program 7: Civil Rights - Ralph Bunche wins the Nobel Peace Prize; Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first black recipient of the Pulitzer Prize; Brown v.

Covering the period from 1619 through 1739, this first volume spotlights the origins of slavery in America. Focusing on Dutch New Amesterdam (later New York City), this chapter illustrates how slavery in the early years was a loosely defined labor source similar to indentured servitude. Slaves had some limited rights.

Spanning from the 1740s through the 1830s, this second hour explores the continued expansion of slavery in the colonies, the evolution of a distinct African American culture and the roots of the emancipation movement. This volume reveals the many ways the enslaved resisted their oppression including their role on both sides of the Revolutionary War.

The third volume of the series looks at the period from 1800 through the start of the Civil War when slavery saw an enormous expansion and entered its final decades. As the nation expanded west, the question of slavery became an overriding political issue. These years saw an increasingly militant abolitionist movement and a widening rift between the North and South.

The final volume of the series takes viewers through the Civil War, the Reconstruction and beyond as it follows the life of Robert Smalls. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves under the control of the Confederate government. Once the South was defeated in 1865, the nation adopted the 13th Amendment, effectively ending slavery.