Blu-Ray Review: Up From Slavery

My family and I recently received a copy of the new Blu-Ray Up From Slavery to review.

Up From Slavery is a seven part documentary series that features detailed historical reenactments, expert commentary, and the stories of slavery told through first hand accounts. While it doesn't share every last historical detail, it does goes back to the origins of slavery from Africa, and how the slaves came to the early American colonies. From here we make our way to the Civil War times, and how the slaves received their freedom. You'll hear about things like Nat Turner's Rebellion and the Emancipation Proclamation.

While it's impossible to squeeze hundreds of years worth of history into less than six hours, Up From Slavery does try to cover the main points. The first hand accounts make this show worth watching, but the pictures are definitely not "high definition" as the cover claims. (It would be impossible, with some of the pictures and footage shown in their defense) The show reminded me of something I would have viewed during high school. It's great for classroom purposes, and especially if you are homeschooling, but the average viewer just wanting to watch a documentary on slavery may or may not find this one engaging. We watch a lot of historical documentaries here, so I found it interesting.

There are no special features included on this disc.

The DVD gets the TV-14 rating not from bad language, but more for the touchy subject it talks about. Use caution if viewing this with small children, who may have many questions for you to answer. If you are interested in adding this Blu-Ray to your collection, you can receive 25% off your purchase, now through May 15th, 2012 via TV Flashbacks's webpage here using promo code DOCS25 at checkout.

Up From Slavery is available now on Blu-Ray. Widescreen format, the total running time is five hours and six minutes long. It is rated TV-14. The suggested retail price is $14.98, but has it available for $8.47 as of this posting.

I received a copy of this DVD in order to view it and share my thoughts on it. All opinions are my own.