Plot Synopsis

Anchored by interviews with descendants of ancestors whose stories are featured throughout the event series and geographical imagery that showcases the history of how America was populated, AMERICA: PROMISED LAND is a two-part, four-hour special that reveals the history behind the creation of America, exploring how and why our ancestors came to the United States -- from Colonial times through the 1970s. Additionally, the series sheds a realistic light on the struggles and hardships that some populations endured during their journey to America, such as the transport of enslaved people during the transatlantic slave trade and Italian communities in New York being targeted by criminal organizations.

Part 1 (9-11pm on Monday, May 29): From the Dutch living in New Amsterdam seeking the wealth offered by the fur trade, through the English Quakers who fled persecution and helped shape the American Constitution, to the German soldiers who helped the North defeat the South, this episode uses expert historians, DNA evidence and census records to explore our cultural origins through the different groups who travelled to America seeking freedom from early Colonial times through the end of the Civil War.

Part 2 (9-11pm on Tuesday, May 30): Sparked by the Industrial Revolution, a wave of migrants flood the United States. One-third of the entire population of Norway and Sweden migrate to America, transforming the Pacific Northwest; opened by the transcontinental railroad, Mennonite farmers from Ukraine turn Kansas into the breadbasket of the country; in 1908, more Italians were living in New York City than Rome. Spanning the 1900s through the 1970s, this episode reveals how our ancestors, coming from America's own Southern states, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia, change America's cityscapes forever, and directly influence the map of modern America.