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'The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns' Episode Review: 'The Cause: 1861'

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Beginning with a searing indictment of slavery, this first episode dramatically evokes the causes of the war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the northern abolitionists who opposed it. Here are the burning questions of Union and states' rights, John Brown at Harpers Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the firing on Fort Sumter, and the jubilant rush to arms on both sides. Along the way the series' major figures are introduced: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and a host of lesser-known but equally vivid characters. The episode comes to a climax with the disastrous Union defeat at Manassas, Virginia, where both sides learn it is to be a very long war. From the episode guide at PBS.org It's hard to believe that almost 30 years have passed since Ken Burns' The Civil War premiered on September 23, 1990, when the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired The Cause: 1861 , the first of nine episodes about Amer