Underground Railroad (History Channel)
List Price:
Our Price: $1.98
You Save: $17.97 (90%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: VHS Video
See more movie releases
Buy this VHS video movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Alfre WoodardEdition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 100 minutes
Release Date: 1999-04-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Studio: A&E Home Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Underground Railroad (History Channel)
Movie Review: "Follow The Drinking Gourd"
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the most general perceptions that I received from my high school history days in the 1960's concerning the fate of black slaves in America was that they essentially passively waited for the Union armies to free them during the process of the Civil War in the 1860's. In short, blacks had no pre-history as a people who struggled for freedom in their own right but were merely the victims of history. Of course, since those days I have made it my business to find out the real story of slave resistance and although there are many parts that are lost to history we now know that as least some slaves in some situations found ways to break their bondage. Aided during the past few decades by serious scholarly research into the subject we have a more rounded view of the dynamics of slavery in ante bellum American society. This well done History Channel docu-drama, hosted by actress Alfre Woodard, presents one part of that struggle- the work of the Underground Railroad- the fight of courageous individual blacks, aided sometimes by their Northern supporters, to `follow the drinking gourd' North to freedom.
This presentation, complete with the `talking head' commentators that inevitably accompany such efforts, goes back to the early days of slavery and demonstrates that there was always an element of the struggle for freedom by black slaves from the earliest days of European settlement in North America. Moreover, a cadre of freed blacks who were the catalyst for the freedom struggle developed from early on as well. However, the black anti-slavery movement (and for that matter the white part of the anti-slavery movement) did not get energized until the early 19th century in response to the increasing use of slaves to cultivate the expanding cotton crop on Southern plantations. From then on the propaganda fight for emancipation took many forms but basically continued unabated until the Civil War militarily resolved the issue against slavery.
One of the benefits of this production is a well though out exposition of the role that blacks played in this anti-slavery process. Not just the now well-known names like Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman but the little known Henry Garnet, John Stills and John Parker. Moreover, whatever social distinctions could be drawn, even by those within the anti-slavery movement, between blacks and whites it represented the first serious integrated social movement in this country. Needless to say such efforts have been far and few in the history of this country. It is clear that there would be no underground railroad stretching, at it needed to at times, all the way to Canada without such integrated efforts. Aiding that clarity is mention of the Midwest, especially the Ohio River towns, as routes to freedom as well as the more well known eastern coastal routes.
A major highlight here was a serious exposition of the role of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in curtaining the effectiveness of the Underground Railroad, causing the first seeds of irreconcilable conflict between North and South and contributing to the overweening and disproportionate role that the South played in national politics. Some worthwhile time was spent detailing the effects that such legislation had on ordinary citizens who wished not to be complicit with the slaveholders. The various efforts by Northerners, and not just hard core abolitionists, to resist the slave catchers as they headed north is dramatically presented. The well-known Boston case of Anthony Brooks is the focal point for this section.
If there is one criticism that I have of this presentation though it goes back to that first sentence of this entry. If we now know that blacks themselves, as ultimately demonstrated by the enlistment of 200, 000 black Union soldiers in the Civil War, were not mere passive victims of slavery there was a tendency of this presentation to over play the quest for freedom by blacks. One of the hard facts of human history is that oppression oppresses. That little truism conceals this truth- not everyone, and maybe not even many of those oppressed, in the great scheme of things, can break out of the struggle to merely exist to rise out and rebel. Or even flee. This was the vanguard, a precious vanguard, but a vanguard nevertheless. That vanguard expressed that suppressed urge for freedom that we assume beats in every human heart. That is the value of this docu-drama. Watch it and learn a few things about our common history.
Summary of Underground Railroad (History Channel)
So many slaves escaped into freedom along a route that could not be ascertained that the slave owners said there must be an underground railroad under the Ohio River and on to the North." Abolitionist William Cockrum, 1854. Join descendants and scholars as we tell the story of America's first civil rights movement.No records were kept, but historians believe more than 100,000 slaves tried to escape their bondage before the Emancipation Proclamation. Most of those who made it to the relative safety of the north--or the wilderness, when slavery still reigned in the north--had help in the form of the Underground Railroad. Whites, free blacks, and Native Americans offered aid and shelter, though the notion of the Railroad as a kind of conspiracy of freedom, organized from north to south, is deeply flawed. Alfre Woodard links together interviews with historians, contemporary photographs, drawings, and dramatic reenactments to show the terrors of slavery and the travails of escape, exploding many of our myths along the way. The economic and political motivations behind many white abolitionists' feelings are explored, and while ultimately it didn't matter to a slave reaching out for liberty why it was offered, we are forced to reevaluate the selfless image of many "conductors." Still, freedom is freedom, and the History Channel's Underground Railroad tells its story well, inspiring respect for the generations of men and women who fought silently for it. --Rob Lightner
Documentary VHS Video
VHS Video Movies
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation VHS Video
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics VHS Video
- Comedy VHS Video
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama VHS Video
- Educational
- Fitness
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror VHS Video
- Kids & Family
- Military & War VHS Video
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports VHS Video
- Television VHS Video
- Westerns VHS Video
Movies most talked about in Documentary VHS Video
The Perfect WeaponParamount; Release date: 1996-07-16; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $139.99
The RescueTHE RESCUE; Walt Disney Video; Release date: 1996-04-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $19.50
Four Days in NovemberMGM (Video & DVD); Release date: 1998-09-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
The Pagan Invasion: Halloween-Trick Or TreatTapeworm; Release date: 1999-11-16; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
Walt Disney's True Life Adventures - The Living DesertWalt Disney Video; Release date: 1998-06-16; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $39.99
Price in other shops:
Baseball - A Film by Ken BurnsPbs Home Video; Release date: 1995-04-16; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Price in other shops:
Stalin (1992)MGM (Video & DVD); Release date: 1998-09-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $75.00
Sarah Plain And TallRepublic Pictures; Release date: 1995-03-21; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.07
Price in other shops:
The Century-America's Time (Boxed Set)ABC News; Release date: 1999-03-23; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $62.59
Price in other shops:
The Man Who Saw TomorrowWarner Home Video; Release date: 1998-09-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $24.50
Similar VHS Movies
Black Indians: An American StoryRelease date: 2004-01-01; DVD
Best price: $21.99
Price in other shops:
4 Little GirlsLEE,SPIKE; Release date: 2001-01-23; DVD
Best price: $8.15
Price in other shops:
Slavery and the Making of AmericaRelease date: 2005-02-09; DVD
Best price: $52.40
Price in other shops:
Race to Freedom: The Story of the Underground RailroadRelease date: 2001-02-03; DVD
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
The Rosa Parks StoryLION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2003-01-21; DVD
Best price: $4.06
Price in other shops:
The Middle PassageWarner Brothers; Release date: 2003-02-04; DVD
Best price: $13.13
Price in other shops:
The Autobiography of Miss Jane PittmanTYSON,CICELY; Release date: 2005-01-11; DVD
Best price: $4.78
Price in other shops:
Unchained MemoriesWarner Brothers; Release date: 2003-02-11; DVD
Best price: $12.81
Price in other shops:
Africans in America: America's Journey Through SlaveryWGBH BOSTON VIDEO; Release date: 2000-08-01; DVD
Best price: $16.72
Price in other shops:
A Woman Called MosesRelease date: 2001-02-03; DVD
Best price: $7.34
Price in other shops: