Africans in America Ep. 1 – The Terrible Transformation | PBS Black History Series

[Music] land. We were

[Music] here [Music] before we were [Music] here. How came its for the land. We were here

[Music] presenting history's Best on [Music] PBS. They came from different lands, all facing an uncertain future. English and Ashante, Mendy and Portuguese, German and Eo, Fonti and Spaniard, French and Angolan. Some seeking adventure or riches or religious freedom. Others were captives, bartered and sold like cattle. Together they would build a nation and struggle over the very

meaning of freedom and create the America we have inherited today. I don't think you can understand race relations today without understanding slavery. Even though people will say I didn't do it, my father didn't do it. Even my grandparents, they didn't do it. One of the things that's essential is to know that slavery is not just a southern

institution. It's an American institution. [Music] What evolves in North America is a belief system where to be black meant to be a slave and to be a slave meant to be black. [Music] We hold these truths to be self-evident. Why is it self-evident? It came from God. They're inalienable. Government secures them. Remarkable document. Didn't apply to

black folks. And the man who wrote those words, Thomas Jefferson, kept slaves. He also wrote sometime later to a friend, "If there is a just God, we're going to pay for this. Slavery and freedom existed side by side in this country. I think the issue is did it always have to be that way? And the