Piece Description

Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, the Tappan Brothers, and other abolitionists, black and white, reach a crossroads on just how militant the Abolitionist Movement should be. On the high seas the British Navy aggressively pursues and neutralizes practitioners of the transatlantic slave trade, but despite national and international bans, slave ships with their human cargo still move in and out of North American ports with relative impunity. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in (1850), John Brown determines that time for talk is over. He tries to enlist Frederick Douglass as an active participant in his planned raid. Douglass declines, and tries, unsuccessfully, to dissuade Brown. All this and more is captured in Segment #11.