TORONTO — The six-part docuseries Enslaved, featuring actor and human rights activist Samuel L. Jackson (pictured with investigative journalist Afua Hirsch), will premiere on CBC TV, CBC Gem and the Documentary Channel in October, Canada’s public broadcaster announced Tuesday.
The series about the transatlantic slave trade sheds new light on 400 years of human trafficking from Africa to the New World. Based on a DNA test identifying his ancestral tribe, the series traces Jackson’s personal journey from the United States to Gabon for his induction into the Benga tribe, providing rare and unprecedented access to secret ceremonies and local customs.
Using new diving technology — such as advanced 3D mapping and ground-penetrating radar — to locate and examine sunken slave ships on three continents, the series reveals an entirely new perspective on the history of the transatlantic slave trade. The series also tracks the efforts of Diving With a Purpose, a collaborating organization with The National Association of Black Scuba Divers, as they search for and locate six slave ships that sank, drowning the enslaved humans aboard. Featuring the most dives ever made on sunken slave ships, Enslaved also chronicles the first positive identification of a “Freedom Ship,” an American schooner that ferried African American runaways to Canada.
Each episode follows three separate story lines: the quest for a sunken slave ship, a personal journey by Samuel L. Jackson and a historical investigation led by investigative journalists Simcha Jacobovici and Hirsch.
Enslaved will premiere on CBC TV and free CBC Gem streaming service on Sunday, October 18 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT), and on Documentary Channel the day before, Saturday, October 17, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The series will also premiere in the U.S. on Epix on September 14. It is being distributed internationally (everywhere but Canada, the U.S. and Israel) by Fremantle and is a Canada/U.K. co-production between Toronto-based Associated Producers and London-based Cornelia Street Productions.
