Best movies & TV Shows like Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery

In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.

An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.

The North Star is the story of Benjamin "Big Ben" Jones and Moses Hopkins, two slaves who escaped from a Virginia plantation and made their way to freedom in Buckingham, Pennsylvania in 1849. Big Ben's 6 foot 10 inch size and a record bounty for his safe return make him the focus of every slave hunter on the east coast. Their journey exposes them to danger and cruelty; however it also exposes them to the unexpected kindness of the people involved in the Underground Railroad. These experiences will change Ben and Moses forever. Upon reaching the relative safety of Mt. Gilead Church on Buckingham Mountain, Ben and Moses get to experience life as free men and cross paths with historical figures such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Joshua and Jonathan Fell. Their freedom also allows them to experience heroism, romance and treachery. Written by LuckPig Studios

Revolution is a new movie from internationally-acclaimed filmmaker Rob Stewart. A follow-up to his award-winning documentary Sharkwater, this continues his remarkable journey of discovery to find out that what he thought was a shark problem is actually a people problem. As Stewart's battle to save sharks escalates, he uncovers grave dangers threatening not just sharks, but humanity. In an effort to uncover the truth and find the secret to saving our own species, Stewart embarks on a life-threatening adventure through 15 countries, over four years in the making. In the past four years the backdrop of ocean issues has changed completely. Saving sharks will be a pointless endeavor if we are losing everything else in the ocean, not just sharks. Burning fossil fuels is releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; changing the oceans, changing atmospheric chemistry and altering our climate.

They've ridden dusty miles without end and fought fierce battles. Yet when these brave African-American cavalrymen enter a scraggly frontier town, they must walk through it instead of ride. The town dishonors them but the soldiers' Native-American foes do not. Apache leader Victoria and other warriors give the horsemen a name of honor and strength: "Buffalo Soldiers". The troopers' daring hunt for Victorio frames this stirring tribute to the former slaves and other African-Americans of the 9th and 10th U.S. Calvary Regiments. Danny Glover, Mykelti Williamson, Glynn Turman, Carl Lumbly and Michael Warren star in an adventure bringing to light that largely unknown story and the unique moral dilemma the men faced. Atten-hut! "Buffalo Soldiers are riding" through town.

A look at the life of Cecil Gaines who served eight presidents as the White House's head butler from 1952 to 1986, and had a unique front-row seat as political and racial history was made.

Inspired by the gripping true story of a man who would do anything for his family—and for freedom. When Peter, an enslaved man, risks his life to escape and return to his family, he embarks on a perilous journey of love and endurance.

Two men separated by 100 years are united in their search for freedom. In 1856 a slave, Samuel Woodward and his family, escape from the Monroe Plantation near Richmond, Virginia. A secret network of ordinary people known as the Underground Railroad guide the family on their journey north to Canada. They are relentlessly pursued by the notorious slave hunter Plimpton. Hunted like a dog and haunted by the unthinkable suffering he and his forbears have endured, Samuel is forced to decide between revenge or freedom. 100 years earlier in 1748, John Newton the Captain of a slave trader sails from Africa with a cargo of slaves, bound for America. On board is Samuel's great grandfather whose survival is tied to the fate of Captain Newton. The voyage changes Newton's life forever and he creates a legacy that will inspire Samuel and the lives of millions for generations to come.

A number of slaves risk their lives to escape their masters with their only help coming from the famous secret slave escape network.

During the Second World War, a special project is begun by the US Army Air Corps to integrate African American pilots into the Fighter Pilot Program. Known as the "Tuskegee Airman" for the name of the airbase at which they were trained, these men were forced to constantly endure harassement, prejudice, and much behind the scenes politics until at last they were able to prove themselves in combat.

A high school in a small-town in Mississippi prepares for its first integrated senior prom.

This documentary film tells the dramatic story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple living in Virginia in the 1950s, and their landmark Supreme Court Case, Loving v. Virginia, that changed history.

A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.

Investigative reporter Jack Anderson hosts a two-hour investigation of the Kennedy Assassination featuring interviews with experts, eyewitnesses, government officials and authors. Includes dramatic recreations of key events.

The Richardson Olmsted Campus, a former psychiatric center and National Historic Landmark, is seeing new life as it undergoes restoration and adaptation to a modern use.

Explore the surprising things we know (and don’t know) about why people are the way they are through expert interviews, rare footage from historical experiments, and brand-new, ground-breaking demonstrations of human nature at work.

Roots: The Next Generations is a television miniseries, introduced in 1979, continuing, from 1882 to the 1960s, the fictionalized story of the family of Alex Haley and their life in Henning, Lauderdale County, Tennessee, USA. This sequel to the 1977 miniseries is based on the last seven chapters of Haley's novel entitled Roots: The Saga of an American Family plus additional material by Haley. Roots: The Next Generations was produced with a budget of $16.6 million, nearly three times as large as that of the original.

David Attenborough reveals the surprising truth about the cold-blooded lives of reptiles and amphibians. These animals are as dramatic, as colourful and as tender as any other animals.

The definitive story of the Civil Rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberation continue to be felt today.

Racism: A History is a three-part British documentary series originally broadcast on BBC Four in March 2007. It was part of the season of programmes broadcast on the BBC marking the 200th anniversary of the Slave Trade Act 1807, a landmark piece of legislation which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. The series explores the impact of racism on a global scale and chronicles the shifts in the perception of race and the history of racism in Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia. The series was narrated by Sophie Okonedo.

Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.

Take off on a thrilling flight across America. This epic series offers rare glimpses of our nation's most treasured landmarks, all seen from breathtaking heights. From busy cityscapes to quiet landscapes, we capture the history and the pageantry of our amazing country, which is as diverse as the people who occupy it.

Delve into the secret underworld of the American Mafia, as told by the criminals who lived it and the law enforcers who hunted it. This dramatic six-part series chronicles the true-life story of the modern Mob in America, as former mobsters, informants, and FBI agents expose the takedown of the deadliest and most infamous organized crime ring in U.S. history. A combination of recently declassified files, first-person accounts by federal officials and the mafioso themselves, and rare archival footage sheds a new light on the raw, violent, and corrupt underworld that gripped America for decades.

Take a journey back in time and immerse yourself in a 150-year-old battle that nearly split our nation in two. This three-part series explores famous and little known aspects of the Civil War, from the perspectives of the Union, the Confederacy and the millions of enslaved people struggling for freedom. Hosted by Ashley Judd, Trace Adkins, and Dennis Haysbert, all of whom had ancestors greatly affected by the war, this series delivers fresh insights and untold tales, brought to life through dramatic recreations and the Smithsonian Institution's vast collection of artifacts.

Bullet Points dives into history’s most important battles to learn their larger significance in the outcome of the war. Top expert analysis, cutting edge CGI, eyewitness accounts, and archival footage illustrate this riveting Cliff’s Notes version of how wars were won in part because of these momentous battles.

Mei, a young woman who was adopted from China as a baby, is dramatically pulled back into the land of her birth. As she embarks on a dangerous mission to save the brother she never knew, she is forced to confront the truth of who she truly is and what family really means.

Almost 2,000 years ago, the final book of the Bible, Revelation, predicted that Christ would return but only after a period of chaos and torment inflicted on the world to test the faith of mankind. REVELATION: THE END OF DAYS is a gripping, dramatic interpretation of how the ancient prophecies of The Book of Revelation could unfold in our modern world. The two-night, four-hour event brings to life six fictional characters’ firsthand accounts of the “End of Days” events. REVELATION: THE END OF DAYS merges drama with re-purposed real news archive to thrust a group of fictional characters into an imagining of the Apocalypse. The program follows the dramatic stories of a TV reporter, a police officer, a doctor, a scientist and a college professor as they deal with chaos, war, earthquakes and a deadly pandemic.

The story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stretching from his days as a Southern Baptist minister in the South of the 1950s until his assassination in Memphis in 1968.

An adaptation of Alex Haley's "Roots", chronicling the history of an African slave, Kunta Kinte sold to America and his descendants.

From The Creators Of The Best-Selling Documentary Series "Up From Slavery"... A 7-Part Compelling Journey Through America's Greatest Saga. In 1860, the nation founded upon an idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness had as many as four hundred thousand slave-owners and almost four million slaves. By denying these rights to more than twelve percent of its population, America would soon pay with the blood of a generation. The story of African Slavery in America started with the first permanent English Colony in the 17th century... and ended with the Civil War. But those two hundred and fifty years of struggle were just the beginning. The beginning of a journey down the long Emancipation Road...

A two-part miniseries. Dramatizes the events leading up to the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school desegregation, "Brown vs. Board of Education."

Follow the transformation of Patty Hearst from heiress to terrorist in a saga of privilege, celebrity, politics, media, revolution, and violence. Over forty years later, newly discovered evidence, archival footage, cinematic recreations and exclusive firsthand accounts shed light on one of the biggest and most bizarre stories in modern American history.

With rare access to those closest to the case, Shawndrea and Joe meet face-to-face with Phoenix's parents, family members and friends, many of whom have never spoken publicly. Following a series of startling revelations that lead them across the country, Shawndrea and Joe investigate the facts and expose truths and fabrications as they uncover exciting new leads.

Set during the final days of slavery in 19th century Jamaica, we follow the trials, tribulations and survival of plantation slave July and her odious mistress Caroline.

Follow young Cora’s journey as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. After escaping her Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad, Cora discovers no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil.

A television miniseries based on the life of Harriet Tubman, the escaped African American slave who helped to organize the Underground Railroad, and who led dozens of African Americans from enslavement in the Southern United States to freedom in the Northern states and Canada.

A look at 400 years of human trafficking from Africa to the New World with each episode following three separate story lines: the quest for a sunken slave ship, a personal journey by Samuel L. Jackson and a historical investigation led by investigative journalists Simcha Jacobovici and Afua Hirsch.

Hosted by Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, A More or Less Perfect Union features perspectives and interviews from constitutional experts of all stripes - liberal, conservative and libertarian - examining the key issues of liberty: freedom of religion and press, slavery and civil rights, the Second Amendment, separation of powers and more. Constitutional experts, citizens and in dramatic recreations, the Framers themselves--weigh in on the unique document, the rule of law, the three branches of government separated to prevent tyranny, and the debate over originalism versus a living Constitution.

A young man, Aren, is recruited into a secret society of magical Black people who dedicate their lives to a cause of utmost importance: making white people’s lives easier.

Narrated by Sterling K. Brown, this six-part docuseries takes a comprehensive look at the remarkable and unexpected story of Abraham Lincoln by exploring his complicated inner world, seamlessly interweaving his tragic personal life with his history making political career. The series uses a mix of expert interviews, cinematic recreations, rare artifacts, and never before broadcast photos and letters to take viewers on a transcendent journey into the life and times of this iconic U.S. president.

In December 1985, Alison Day disappeared after getting off a train at Hackney Wick station. Over the next six months, two more women would be snatched at stations in the South East. Rumours began to circulate that a serial killer was stalking the railways, and that he was linked to a series of sex attacks across London, going back years. But who was he? And could there be any truth in the rumour that there was a team of killers, working together? It took another fourteen years for the police to close the case on the so-called ‘Railway Killers’. It was a case that completely rewrote our understanding of murderers, and how to catch them. Through dramatic reconstruction and testimony from police officers, and the victims’ friends, The Railway Killers reveals every twist and turn in the case. Across three episodes this landmark series explores the devastating impact of these crimes, as well as the shocking revelation of the killers’ identities.

Wildest Europe reveals the incredible beauty and diversity of wildlife in Europe’s major natural habitats. The result is a surprising and wonderful journey of life in many dramatic and varied landscapes. No other continent has such a variety of landscapes and wildlife crammed into so little space. Sculpted by millions of years of rainfall carving out caves, rivers, islands and coastline of this diverse and epic landmass we explore the major waterways that provide home to a myriad of life forms, as well as the forests and woodlands and the grasslands, marshlands and plains. Europe’s habitats also span from sea level to mountain top, and once again wildlife has adapted to thrive in both places. Wildest Europe is a landmark series that explores this great continent of extremes…

Masters of American Music is a multi-award-winning television series, as entertaining and memorable as it is educational, it is a must have for any true music fan. The series celebrates a pantheon of the greatest musical innovators with individual programmes tracing the lives and works of master musicians who defined the course of American’s musical history. From the birth of the blues in New Orleans to Swing, Big Band, Bebop, Free Jazz and beyond – all of this rich tapestry is explored with sensitivity and unique depth. The featured artists come to life through conversations with their contemporaries, exciting and rare live performances, period footage and vintage photographs, all of which have been meticulously produced.

Caroline Randall Williams, an award-winning writer, cookbook author and restaurateur, travels the United States uncovering the fascinating, essential and often untold black stories behind American food.

Twenty-five years of contempt, controversy and conspiracy lead to one question -- who killed Biggie and Tupac? With exclusive interviews and unique insight into both shootings, hear the riveting answers from key players. Who is telling the truth?

In keeping with the original project, this series seeks to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

Glee's cast and crew reveal surprising truths behind making the series and recount the meteoric rise of a Hollywood hit as well as the tragedies of some of its stars.

Since the creation of currency, money has made the world go round and people have done anything and everything in their power to get their hands on a lot of it, including formulating some of the most devious and high-stakes heist attempts of all time. Using dramatic recreations, dynamic storytelling and cutting-edge visual effects, alongside first-person witness accounts from the people who were there, “History’s Greatest Heists with Pierce Brosnan” delves into the intricate schemes and audacity of the criminal masterminds who risked their freedom for a shot at a lifetime of wealth and riches. Brosnan, who is embedded into each heist through state-of-the-art technology, brings each global news headline to life by putting viewers at the heart of the action and breaking down every aspect of the plan including the conniving team, the mark, the execution and finally the aftermath.

A riveting new true crime series that illuminates the drama, the history and the crime stories found below the Mason-Dixon line. With a deliciously delightful Southern inflected narration, unravel the twists and turns of a real-life murder, highlighting the disturbing crimes of the South and the wickedness that led to it. First-hand accounts from victims' loved ones and law enforcement, archival footage and cinematic recreations bring these sinful stories to life.

In "The Soul of A Man," director Wim Wenders looks at the dramatic tension in the blues between the sacred and the profane by exploring the music and lives of three of his favorite blues artists: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir. Part history, part personal pilgrimage, the film tells the story of these lives in music through an extended fictional film sequence (recreations of '20s and '30s events - shot in silent-film, hand-crank style), rare archival footage, present-day documentary scenes and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians such as Shemekia Copeland, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Garland Jeffreys, Chris Thomas King, Cassandra Wilson, Nick Cave, Los Lobos, Eagle Eye Cherry, Vernon Reid, James "Blood" Ulmer, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Marc Ribot, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Lucinda Williams and T-Bone Burnett.