Factions in the Republican party were breeding corruption, so Garfield worked to nominate James Blaine to combat the machine politics of the Stalwarts. But when Garfield delivered his speech to the Republican Convention to back Blaine, the crowd chanted that it was Garfield they wanted for president instead.

James Garfield joined the Union Army in 1861, shortly after the start of hostilities. When he came face to face with slavery during his time fighting in the south, Garfield's belief in the cause of abolition and freedom was strengthened. "This is my hope," he wrote, "that when we shall return to civil life, there shall go up an unrelenting cry for freedom."

The death of their three-year-old daughter and Garfield's affair in New York threatened to tear Lucretia and James apart. But the future First Lady's steadfastness and unwavering moral compass showed Garfield how to be a better man.

In the only major speech of his presidential campaign, Garfield spoke to 50,000 in New York on the issue closest to his heart: the fate of ex-slaves in the South. Many Northerners felt they had sacrificed enough for African Americans but Garfield believed that every man in America, no matter his color, had a say in the government.

Despite Lincoln's assassination in 1865, there were no new safeguards put in to protect the president from would-be assassins. Lincoln's murder had been seen as an anomaly.

Garfield knew he had to secure New York to win the presidency - but that meant negotiating with Roscoe Conkling and the Stalwarts. Avoiding any specific promises, Garfield met with Conkling's underlings to try and clinch their support.

Watch a short video about the documentaries coming to American Experience this February and March on PBS. Executive Producer Mark Samels introduces three new films: "Murder of a President" premiering February 2, "The Perfect Crime" premiering February 9 and "Space Men" premiering March 1. Check your local listings!

President James Garfield was only four months into his presidency when he was shot by a deranged office seeker. The President was bedridden for two months while doctors probed for the assassin's bullet with unsterilized instruments. When Garfield died in September, the entire nation joined his widow, Lucretia in mourning the late President. Premieres February 2 at 9/8c on PBS American Experience.

When labor organizer Mother Jones arrived in a West Virginia coal town in 1901, residents were skeptical and mine guards were hostile. The United Mine Workers of America had successfully organized other mining operations in the U.S., but West Virginia remained tightly controlled by the coal company operators. "The Mine Wars" premieres January 26 at 9/8c on PBS American Experience.

West Virginia coal operators built small, company-owned towns for their miners to live in. The coal towns were almost always unincorporated; there were no elected officials, no independent police forces. Owners hired private detective agencies to watch over their workforce. Company towns were also untethered from the free market competition owners usually championed.

To meet the growing demand for coal in the early 20th century, West Virginia companies needed more miners. African Americans mixed with European immigrants and native Appalachians in the mines and the coal towns. Coal operators felt that diversity would keep unionization at bay.

Even though Clyde Barrow claimed to prefer to run than fight, he amassed a large arsenal, including a Browning Automatic Rifle. Between April 1932 and January 1933, Barrow and his gang were responsible for the murders of four men, including a Fort Worth deputy. "Bonnie & Clyde" premieres Jan. 19 at 9/8c on PBS American Experience.

During the Great Depression, gangsters became unlikely heroes. As film historian Jeanine Basinger notes in this clip, "The gangster figure represented somebody at the bottom of the social scale condemned to a life of nothing, who did not accept that as their fate and who found a way to change it, which was through violence." Bonnie & Clyde premieres January 19 at 9/8c on PBS.

After a botched robbery attempt, Bonnie was arrested and sent to prison. While there, she wrote poetry using gangster lingo she picked up from pulp magazines and Hollywood. When she read the poems, her mother "began to see a strange and terrifying change in the mind of my child." Bonnie & Clyde premieres January 19 at 9/8c on PBS American Experience.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow both grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, yearning to escape the poverty they were born into. By the time he was 17, Clyde had graduated from committing petty theft with his brother, Buck, and was perfecting his signature crime: stealing cars. "Bonnie & Clyde" premieres January 19 at 9/8c on PBS American Experience.

Though their exploits were romanticized, the Barrow gang was believed responsible for at least 23 murders, including two policemen, as well as numerous robberies and kidnappings. Discover the true story of the most famous outlaw couple in U.S. history -- Bonnie and Clyde.

President James Garfield was just four months into his presidency when he was shot by a deranged office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. After his death that September, Garfield became a symbol of lost opportunity for a nation in transition. Based on Candice Millard's bestseller, "Destiny of the Republic," American Experience's "Murder of a President" premieres January 5 at 9/8c on PBS.

Watch a short video about the documentaries kicking off American Experience's 2016 season. Executive Producer Mark Samels introduces our two new documentaries coming this January to PBS: "Bonnie and Clyde" premiering January 19 and "The Mine Wars" premiering January 26.

In the early 17th century, a small group of religious radicals embarked from England to establish a separatist religious community in the New World. They struggled against disease, climate and the native people to establish a colony that would eventually trigger an influx of colonists throughout New England. "The Pilgrims" premieres November 24 at 8/7c on PBS American Experience.

In the early 17th century, a small group of religious radicals embarked from England to establish a separatist religious community across the Atlantic Ocean in the New World. The challenges the Pilgrims faced in making new lives for themselves still resonate almost 400 years later. "The Pilgrims" premieres November 24 at 8/7c on PBS American Experience.