New lights on 400 years of transatlantic slave trade Produced by Samuel L. Jackson
Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade is a television series that shines a spotlight on the 400 years of human trafficking from Africa to the New World. It chronicles how millions of Africans were kidnapped, shipped, and sold into slavery.
Led by award winning Hollywood actor, Samuel L. Jackson and a crew of divers collectively known as Diving with Purpose, this series documents the search for and attempt to locate six slave ships that drowned with their human cargo. It discards the popular ‘Voice of God’ narrator and instead comes to life by highlighting issues around slavery from the following narrative arcs:
Homecoming
This is basically told through the personal journey of Samuel L. Jackson. It shows his return to the land of his ancestors after tracing his DNA to the Benga tribe of Gabon. He goes through the process of initiation to be welcomed back into their fold as a long-lost son.
Culture in the New World
Much of the food, music and science of the New World could be traced to the interaction between Africans trafficked on various slave ships and their slave masters.
The lost ship: The Leusden
This Dutch ship is known to account for one of the greatest loss of life during the Transatlantic slave trade. As the ship was going down, it is believed that the crew nailed the hatches, drowning over 640 slaves that could have been saved.
Resistance to slave trade
While the vast retelling of the history of slavery is mostly focused on Africans as victims, this series documents the story not often told: the story of African resistance to slavery.
The abolition
The series also captures the historical events that brought slavery to an end. It also tries to resolve the case of “The London”, a ship that re-enslaved freed Africans from St. Lucia and trafficked them to England.
In filming Enslaved, the production crew conducted the most dives ever made on sunken slave ships. In the process, it made the first positive identification of the wreck of a “Freedom Ship”, The Great Lakes. The series is also the most comprehensive non-scripted series made on the slave trade.
Watch ‘Enslaved’ exclusively on M-Net. Upgrade to DStv Premium and experience the six-episode docuseries starting on Saturday 19th September at 8:00pm.
