Film

Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom

1985 · 1h 53m · Drama · History · TV Movie

At the beginning of the Civil War, Union gunboats sailed into Port Royal Sound, on the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia. White plantation owners fled, and the 10,000 blacks who lived there, almost all of whom were slaves, were freed in the first test of President Abraham Lincoln's dream of emancipation. Charlotte Forten, a 21-year-old educated black woman, helped the freed slaves to begin to build a new society. That experience forms the plot of this drama, based on Charlotte Forten's journals, which was telecast on "American Playhouse."

Mary Alice

Blind Lily

Ned Beatty

Rev. Mansfield French

Carla Borelli

Laura Towne

Ariane Brandt

Ellen

Ed Danilowicz

Commissioner McKim

Micki Grant

Lena

Moses Gunn

Hannibal

Anna Maria Horsford

Hannah

Robert Jacob

Soldier in the Band

Bruce McGill

Edward Philbrick

Melba Moore

Charlotte Forten

Jay Patterson

Edward Pierce

Vyto Ruginis

Col. Thomas Higginson

Connie Trask

Mrs. Lawrence

Glynn Turman

Joshua

Lou Walker

Sgt. Rivas

• Barry CraneDirector
• Samm-Art WilliamsWriter
• Yanna Kroyt BrandtProducer
• Shep MorganExecutive Producer
• John CarterEditor

Release date

February 25, 1985

Status

Released

Original language

English

Runtime

1h 53m

Genres

Drama, History, TV Movie