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The Ford Assembly Line

2m 59s
Inspired by the moving lines used at meat-packing plants, Ford’s factory tested an assembly line in the flywheel magneto department. Rather than having one person build a coil at a time, the supervisor broke down the individual tasks into a sequence driven by a conveyor. The new system reduced the time it took to make a magneto from twenty minutes to thirteen minutes, ten seconds.
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The Model T

2m 35s
In October of 1908, Henry Ford introduced the newest addition to his alphabet line—the Model T. It had a four-cylinder, 20 horsepower engine, a vastly improved transmission and an ingenious magnetic generator that provided power for an ignition and lights. At a time when the average car cost more than two thousand dollars, the Model T sold for just eight hundred and fifty.
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Ford's River Rouge Complex

2m 41s
The River Rouge factory complex took 10 years to build and was compromised of 93 buildings which housed 120 miles of conveyors. There were 15 miles of roadways and 100 miles of railroad within the plant just to move things around. Water pumped from the Detroit River supplied the complex with 700 million gallons a day—as much water as consumed by Detroit, Cincinnati and New Orleans combined.
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Culebra Cut

2m 59s
When Goethals replaced Stevens as Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal, the bulk of the work still lay ahead. Goethals shifted priority to excavation of the Culebra Cut, making it a 24-hour operation. As many as 6,000 men were at work on the cut at any given time. Without any warning, landslides would occur and wipe out months of work in an instant, destroying machinery and burying workers alive.
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What Was the Dred Scott Decision?

2m
In 1857 the Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott, a slave who sought freedom via the courts. With the ruling the Court radically altered not just the battle over slavery, but the status of every black person in America.
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Slavery and the Mexican-American War

1m 10s
The Mexican-American war (1846-1848) changed the slavery debate. It almost doubled the size of the United States and began a debate, between Northerners and Southerners, over what to do with the newly acquired land.
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Map History With Us!

1m 55s
Map history with American Experience! You can relive the history of the abolitionist movement on American Experience's Mapping History iPhone app and explore places central to the nation's anti-slavery effort. Dozens of museums, institutions and PBS stations have partnered with American Experience to bring you archival images, documents and videos related to abolitionism.
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Attack at Harpers Ferry

2m 8s
In 1859 John Brown seized a federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, but failed to incite a revolution. Authorities found a link between Brown and Frederick Douglass.
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John Brown Gathers His Arsenal

2m 2s
John Brown put little stock in the idea of abolition through peaceful means. In 1855, he gathered his arsenal and left his home for the slave state of Kansas where he would begin his bloody struggle.
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The Book that Made the War

2m 4s
Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in 1852 and changed American opinions on slavery. Uncle Tom's Cabin reached a vast audience, and made millions of Americans see slavery, for the first time, through the eyes of its victims.
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A Radical Wedding and a Violent Response

2m 59s
In the spring of 1838, abolitionists Theodore Weld and Angelina Grimke wed in a "scandalous" ceremony, one unlike any other before seen. As news of the wedding spread, racial tensions in the city of Philadelphia reached a boiling point.
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