• Home
  • News
  • Top Picks
    • Movies & Films: Top 25
    • Documentaries: Top 25
    • Films For Students: Top 10
    • Music Videos: Top 10
  • Categories
    • Film
    • Documentary
    • Shorts
    • Blog
    • Calendar
    • Links
    • About

Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World

Libertarian Movies, Films & Documentaries

Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad (1994)

Tagged: Anti-slavery

Slaves escape to freedom in Canada with the help of abolitionists. [ Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad credits: Dir: Don McBrearty/ Janet Bailey, Michael Riley, Ron White/ 90 min/ Action-Adventure/ Canada/ Anti-Slavery]

“Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad isn’t just an abolitionist-as-hero movie. The main point here is that much of the operation of the Underground Railroad would never have been possible without Canada. “

In 1850, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, a law that diminished the relative safety of the North as a haven for escaped slaves by overriding state laws protecting them. As a result, fugitive slaves were pursued by bounty hunters all over the United States. Fortunately there was still Canada, and that’s the theme here in this Canadian made-for-TV movie.

At the center of this story is a young Canadian abolitionist who travels to the South on his first mission for the Underground iRailroad. Under the cover of doing ornithological field research, he secretly organizes an escape for four slaves. In the course of the telling of his adventure, we get a pretty complete lesson in the history of North American abolitionism. We hear the oratory of Frederick Douglass. We see Harriet Tubman running slaves north. We see a captured slave brutally punished, and witness the courage of abolitionists and runaway slaves alike as they endure perilous conditions and outwit bounty hunters to reach freedom and safety. That history lesson alone makes this film worth watching.

But Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad isn’t just an abolitionist-as-hero movie. The main point here is that much of the operation of the Underground Railroad would never have been possible without Canada. After the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, it was no longer enough for a slave to escape to the northern U.S. They had to get all the way out of the U.S. to be safe. And indeed, by 1861, forty thousand slaves had escaped to Canada. This is a significant point from a libertarian perspective, because it’s a reminder of the importance of independent states as a check on the occasional insanity of government. In the end, the final check on any injustice is escape, but that implies the need for some place to be able to escape to. It’s a lesson that naive believers in benevolent world government ought to bear in mind.

In terms of entertainment, this is pretty typical made-for-TV fare, but it’s nonetheless enjoyable and likely to be of special interest to Canadians. As the old slave song goes, “Farewell, old master, don’t come after me. I’m on my way to Canada, where colored men are free.”

External Reviews

“Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad is a powerful two-hour cable-film that breaks from the Black History Month staples of documentaries and repeats, by exploring the lives of the men and women, blacks and whites, who risked all for freedom.”
–Variety

How to See It

Netflix
Amazon (DVD)
Online Video Search

Links

IMDB

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Subscribe to our new Substack for updates!

Featured Post

police

How To Talk To Police: Four Instructional Films

Most people are afraid of the police, for two reasons. First, while the vast majority of cops are doing their job in the most fair-minded way they can, there are actual bad cops and it's very hard for even a well-managed police force to get rid of them. This is because police are almost always unionized … Continue Reading

pad man

Pad Man | Film Review

An heroic and independent entrepreneur creates a low-cost sanitary pad for the world’s poor, but must overcome cultural shame associated with menstruation to get his invention accepted. Based on a true story. [ Pad Man credits: Dir: R. Balki/ Akshay Kumar, Radhika Apte, Sonam Kapoor/ 140 min/ Biography, … Continue Reading

victimless crime spree

Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree (2012)

WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN DOCUMENTARIES Libertarian activist Derrick J. Freeman chronicles his arrest and incarceration for five "crimes" -- videoing police, dancing in a public place, smoking cannabis, wearing a hat in court, and riding a bike -- in a civil disobedience spree that demonstrates just how … Continue Reading

Themes

Abuse of power American revolution Anti-draft Anti-regulation Anti-slavery Anti-socialism Anti-taxation Anti-war Ayn Rand Corrupt government Creator as hero Democide Econ 101 Eminent domain Equality & law Escape from socialism Freedom of speech Free press as hero Government as bigot Government as torturer Government enforced morality Government healthcare Government schools Incompetent government Individualism John Stossel Law & liberty Legalize Drugs Libertarian heroes Libertarianism 101 Power corrupts Power worship Pro-capitalism Pro-immigration Propaganda Psychiatric coercion Resistance to tyranny Right to secede Search & seizure Second amendment Sexual liberty Social tolerance Unions & monopolies Voluntarism Working for government

Genres/Categories

Action-Adventure Animated Biography Blog Comedy Documentary Drama Family Featured Film Foreign History Horror Music-Dance Netflix News Romance SciFi-Fantasy Shorts Thriller Upcoming Western

About Miss Liberty

This site is a collection of films and documentaries of particular interest to libertarians (and those interested in libertarianism). It began as a book, Miss Liberty’s Guide to Film: Movies for the Libertarian Millennium, where many of the recommended films were first reviewed. The current collection has grown to now more than double the number in that original list, and it’s growing still.

  • RSS

© 2023 Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World. All Rights Reserved