The Canadian Experience: Freedom's Land (2004)

This is the story of how Canada and the Underground Railroad became the focal point of the anti-slavery movement in the tumultuous decade leading up to the American Civil War. The Underground Railroad, part metaphor, part fact, enabled thousands of black refugees to flee the oppression of the only nation in the western world that still condoned the practice of slavery. It is a system that penetrated ever deeper into the slave states because of men like Alexander Ross, a young Canadian physician, who risked his life to bring the "freedom train" to the very gates of the slave plantations. In Canada, Henry Bibb joins the fight, establishing Voice of the Fugitive, the first Black-owned newspaper in Canada. He uses his new freedom to beat down racial prejudice in Canada and to strike back at his former oppressors south of the border. Using manuscripts and letters to create dramatic reconstructions, this film tells the stories of these remarkable men and dramatically portrays the unique role Canada played in helping to end a barbaric system that subjugated more than five million men, women and children. When it is discovered that John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry was planned in Chatham Ontario, Canada was accused by Southern politicians of being the ring leader of "the abolitionist's predatory war" against the South's way of life, Canadians applaud. Eighteen months later when John Brown's raid becomes known as the first shot in the American Civil War, Canadians cheered. This documentary tells us why.