The series starts from the birth of the abolitionist movement and the wars over slavery in Kansas and Harper’s Ferry, through the election of President Abraham Lincoln and the firing on Fort Sumter. This series covers all the major battles to the death of President Lincoln and the beginnings of Reconstruction. The series concludes with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House and the surrender of the western Confederate Army to Sherman in North Carolina in the spring of 1865. It then explores the legacy of slavery and the consequences and meaning of a war that transformed the country forever.