Challenges one of America's most cherished assumptions, the belief that slavery in the U.S. ended with Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, by telling the harrowing story of how, in the South, a new system of involuntary servitude took its place with shocking force.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas A. Blackmon.

Special features (on DVD version only) include: "The bricks we stand on,"Douglas A. Blackmon shares how the project evolved (18 min.); behind the scenes.