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"Take on the South" Examines
the Question of Slavery in the United States

Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m.

For Immediate Release
November 17, 2009

Columbia, SC… Had the Civil War never happened, how long would the institution of slavery survived in the United States? That is the topic of discussion on the third installment of "Take on the South," an occasional series that takes a scholarly look at questions surrounding the southern states, and their influences on the history—and future—of our nation.

This episode debuts on ETV-HD on Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m., with an encore broadcast on Friday, Nov. 27 at 10 p.m. The South Carolina Channel will also air the program on Friday, Nov. 27 at 8 p.m.

Dr. Walter Edgar, host of ETV Radio's "Walter Edgar's Journal," moderates the hour-long debate, which denotes that the issue is examined from a purely economic and historic point of view, and does not delve into the moral or ethical issues of slavery.

The featured debaters on this episode of "Take on the South" are:

• Dr. Peter A. Coclanis, Associate Provost, International Affairs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Dr. Stanley Engerman, Professor of Economics and Professor of History, University of Rochester in New York

The two professors make their respective cases by bringing to the front many thought-provoking questions, including:

• How did the United States differ from almost every other country in the way it handled the issue of slavery?

• Would President Abraham Lincoln's idea to prevent slavery from spreading to new states eventually lead to the decline of profitability of slavery, and thus the demise of this way of doing business?

• How complicit were northern banks in perpetuating the slave trade?

The two men also discuss the diverse population of southern slave-owners--including African Americans--and even scholarly studies conducted here and abroad in the mid-1800s that tried to determine how long the institution would be economically viable. Those results ranged from 100 to 250 years, and remind us how close we actually still are to this dark chapter in America's history.

South Carolina ETV is the state's public educational broadcasting network with 11 television and eight radio transmitters, and a multi-media educational system in more than 2,500 schools, colleges, businesses and government agencies. Using television, radio and the web, SCETV's mission is to enrich lives by educating children, informing and connecting citizens, celebrating our culture and environment and instilling the joy of learning.

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For more information, contact Rob Schaller at (803) 737-6556 or rschaller@scetv.org.