Stacey Holman

PBS

A powerful new documentary uncovers the stories of Black Americans who fought to define democracy during the American Revolution, ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary.

PBS announced that a new one-hour film, Declarations: Black Americans And The Revolutionary War will premiere Monday, June 29, at 10:00 PM ET on PBS, and the PBS app. Produced by VPM, Virginia’s home for public media, and directed by Stacey L. Holman (Making Black America: Through the Grapevine, The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song), the film explores the heroic stories of enslaved and freed Black Americans who fought to define democracy and ensure their liberty through the Revolutionary War.

As Virginia’s home for public media, VPM connects more than 2 million people across Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley to insightful programming in news, education, arts and culture across its television, radio and digital channels. The documentary is part of PBS America @ 250, a multiyear celebration of U.S. history, culture, and children’s programming, which began in spring 2025 and continues through America’s Semiquincentennial in 2026 and beyond.

“PBS has long been a home for powerful storytelling that expands our collective understanding of who we are as a nation,” said Margaret Ebrahim, Senior Director of Programing and Development at PBS. “Declarations: Black Americans And The Revolutionary War continues that tradition by bringing long-overdue visibility to the Black Americans whose courage, resistance and belief in the ideals of freedom helped shape the country from its earliest days.”

The film follows the stories of four Black Americans as they navigate our country’s fight for independence and their individual pursuits of freedom. Discover the stories of James Lafayette, who served as a double agent for the Patriots and helped bring down the British at Yorktown; Harry Washington, who was enslaved by George Washington and escaped Mount Vernon to join the British troops; Elizabeth Freeman, previously known as Mum Bet, who sued one of the most prominent patriots in Massachusetts while living under his roof; and Abraham Peyton Skipwith, an enslaved man who used his proximity to power and his unusual literacy to petition for his own freedom and become one of the first free Black landowners in Richmond, VA.

“The 250th anniversary of the United States has presented us with an amazing opportunity to immortalize these previously unacknowledged founding figures who didn’t just fight for their country, but for their freedom,” said Steve Humble, Executive Producer and Chief Content Officer at VPM. “By piecing together their important contributions with fragments of documents and records, this film shines a light on the remarkable lives of these brave Americans who fought in the courts, fought for both sides on the battlefield, and fought through the radical act of living as free Black people in the earliest days of our nation.”

With limited historical representations available, the film brings these lesser-known figures to life visually through the talent of artist and archival producer Hudson Campbell. Continuing a long legacy of artists reclaiming and reshaping black narratives, Campbell created each oil-based portrait by hand. In consultation with historical advisors, these portraits were then animated using artificial intelligence tools, helping to supplement historical depictions and giving these subjects agency on visual terms.

“My work examines how the past informs the future, exploring the evolution of both the stories being told and the mediums used to tell them,” said Campbell. “Drawing from my background in archival production, I use research to translate the profound experiences of historical figures and the environment they inhabited into visual manifestations. By integrating generative AI into this process, I bridge the centuries-wide disconnect between these figures and modern viewers, breathing dimension into the past and making history intimately relatable.”