Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom (1985)
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."
Director: Barry Crane
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Mary Alice as Blind Lily |
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Ned Beatty as Rev. Mansfield French |
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Carla Borelli as Laura Towne |
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Ariane Brandt as Ellen |
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Ed Danilowicz as Commissioner McKim |
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Micki Grant as Lena |
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Moses Gunn as Hannibal |
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Anna Maria Horsford as Hannah |
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Robert Jacob as Soldier in the Band |
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Bruce McGill as Edward Philbrick |
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Melba Moore as Charlotte Forten |
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Jay Patterson as Edward Pierce |
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Vyto Ruginis as Col. Thomas Higginson |
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Connie Trask as Mrs. Lawrence |
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Glynn Turman as Joshua |
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Lou Walker as Sgt. Rivas |
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Rodrick F. Wimberly as Jacob |
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Oyafunmike Ogunlano as Slave / Ring Shout Dancer |
| Editing | John Carter | Editor |
| Directing | Dwight Williams | First Assistant Director |
| Art | Gary Towles | Property Master |
| Directing | Barry Crane | Director |
| Editing | Lillian Benson | Assistant Editor |
| Writing | Samm-Art Williams | Writer |
| Production | Preston L. Holmes | Associate Producer |
| Production | Yanna Kroyt Brandt | Producer |
| Production | Shep Morgan | Executive Producer |