PBS Documentary: ‘Slavery by Another Name’ Review

In honor of Black History Month, SUNY Oswego screened the PBS documentary: Slavery by Another Name. The screening was part of the university’s Race, Place, Being program – a series of semester-long events designed to spark discussion about race relations in the U.S.

The empowering documentary argues that slavery did not really end after the Civil War. The film tells how after the end of slavery in the south in 1865, African Americans suffered from forced labor and faced brutality.

Men were often accused of crimes, which they did not commit and were compelled to work without being paid. Slavery by Another Name brings awareness to the population of the forgotten victims and perpetrators of forced labor and features their descendants living today.

After the compelling film, Oswego senior Ashley Galvez shared her reaction to the film. Ashley was very moved by what she had seen in Slavery by Another Name. After the movie, she felt more aware about all of the troubles that African Americans still faced post-Civil War . The fact that the Civil War was over and African Americans were still being defeated by the former slave owners was extremely upsetting, Galvez said. It did not make sense how a war was fought in a country and nothing seemed to have changed, she said.