Henry Clay and the Struggle for the Union

Henry Clay and the Struggle for the Union explores the turbulent forty years leading up to the Civil War; it is the first documentary ever produced on Henry Clay of Kentucky, the most dominant public figure in the formulation of compromises in 1820, 1833 and 1850 that narrowly avoided disunion and civil war. This program examines the impact of slavery on the expansion of the Nation westward and how conflict between North and South, free States and slave States, was, in the end, irrepressible. Lavishly illustrated with stunning period photographs, footage of the old senate Chamber in the Nation's capital, dramatic scenes of Clay and his senate colleagues played by skilled professional actors, Henry Clay and the struggle for the Union brings the history of the years before the Civil War alive on the screen.