'Enslaved' Episode 6 Preview: Late civil rights leader John Lewis makes cameo in finale about end of slavery
What finally put an end to the transatlantic slave trade? The final episode of Epix's docuseries 'Enslaved' explores just that. This episode will go into the "politics of abolition" in Britain and the American Civil War combined with a diving expedition and archaeological dig around the wreck of "The London," a ship that re-enslaved freed Africans from St. Lucia (in the Caribbean) and illegally trafficked them to England.
It is significant to note that even though the slave trade was abolished, ships like 'The London' who illegally trafficked slaves were not uncommon. It would take years before these ships would stop carrying Africans to the Americas for labor. Brazil, the last nation to abolish slavery, did it in 1888, a good number of years after England took the first steps to dismantle the institution of slavery by creating The Slave Trade Act 1807, which banned the slave trade. England itself would take till 1833 to pass The Slavery Abolition Act, which abolished slavery but only in parts of the British Empire.
In advance pictures from the episode, we see documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, actor Samuel L. Jackson and journalist Afua Hirsch looking over the original "Abolition of the Slave Trade" Act document from 1807 at the Parliamentary archives, housed within the House of Parliament, in London, England.
The episode will also elaborate on the story of Robert Smalls, who escaped slavery and took others to freedom by stealing a Confederate transport ship during the U.S. Civil War. Smalls went on to help convince President Abraham Lincoln to accept African-American soldiers into the Union Army and served as the first Black captain of a US vessel fighting for the freedom of his people. Later, he served as a congressman from South Carolina during Reconstruction. Hopefully, the episode will also bring to light the stories of other lesser-known Black heroes who fought against the enslavement of their people, like the soldiers who enlisted and served with the Union Army during the Civil War.
Connecting the past to more recent history, the episode will also feature late Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis meeting with the 'Enslaved' cast and crew. This is possibly one of his last on-camera interviews recorded before his death. His interview can shed light on how the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation might have freed slaves but the struggle was far from over and the fight, in a way, continues today.
The finale will be the most hopeful chapter of the docuseries that is a harrowing look at the untold and unseen stories of brutality, cruelty, and the absolutely dehumanizing nature of slavery that stain the West's conscience even today. Even though the series started with Jackson's singular journey back to his ancestral home, it will end after weeks of examining the threads of lives all connected by the slave trade on both sides of the racial divide.
In the final episode, besides the work of abolitionists, we will also learn all the reasons, small and big, behind why the late 1800s became the time period where there was enough political will to change for the better, despite it being one of the key drivers of wealth generation.
The last episode of the 'Enslaved' docuseries will air on Monday, October 19, at 10/9c on Epix.
