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About two years ago, Samuel L. Jackson, the Hollywood titan, was presented with an
[Race/Related is available as a newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.]
About two years ago, Samuel L. Jackson, the Hollywood titan, was presented with an
Slavery, of course, was not a new topic of scholarship, and Hollywood had already done a lot on the subject. But he discussed it with his wife, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and something in particular stood out to them. This was a project attempting to tell the story of slavery in part through the lens of sunken slave ships that never reached their destination — ships that became mass graves of kidnapped Africans. It was a perspective, they felt, that could add to society’s understanding of the horrors of slavery.
“That is a worthwhile story to tell,” Mr. Jackson said in an interview this week.
That story is now a six-part docuseries, “Enslaved,” that premiered last Monday on Epix, which will air a new episode each week over the next five weeks. The documentary is also slated to begin in the United Kingdom on BBC Two next month.
The series traces Mr. Jackson’s journey across the globe as he uncovers elements of the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. He is joined on parts of the journey by Afua Hirsch, a British journalist, and Simcha Jacobovici, a documentary filmmaker and journalist who directs the series. The story also follows Diving With a Purpose, an offshoot of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers, as they search for wreckage of slave ships along the ocean bottom.