Chapters:

1. SEEDS OF DISCORD (20 minutes, 15 seconds). Covers the ascendance of George III to the British throne, the rising political turmoil over the debt for the French and Indian War, and the beginnings of Parliament’s oppression of the American colonies. This segment also includes Pontiac’s Rebellion (Indians against colonists), and the colonists' reactions to the Sugar Act, Currency Act, Stamp Act, Quartering Act, and Townshend Acts.

2. THE INTOLERABLE ACTS (13 minutes, 25 seconds). Recounts the Boston Massacre (1770), the Gaspee incident (burning of a British customs ship in 1772), and the Boston Tea Party (the dumping of British tea in Boston Harbor as a protest to the Tea Act of 1773). The segment also covers Parliament’s passage of the Coercive Acts to punish the Massachusetts colonists, prompting the formation of the First Continental Congress (1774) and the passage of the Suffolk Resolves (declaring grievances against Parliament). The segment concludes with Parliament's response, the New England Restraining Act.

3. “LIBERTY OR DEATH!” (18 minutes, 7 seconds). Covers the events surrounding America’s break from England, including Patrick Henry’s call to arms, the battle at Lexington (launching the American Revolution), the invasions of Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the assembly of the Second Continental Congress, the establishment of the Continental Army under George Washington, the Battle of Bunker (Breed’s) Hill, King George III’s defiant response, and the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

4. THE CONTINENTAL ARMY (19 minutes, 2 seconds). Recounts George Washington’s disheartening military setbacks in New York, his turnaround victories at Trenton and Princeton, and his renewed difficulties in Pennsylvania. The segment also describes America’s victory at Saratoga, the bleak Valley Forge winter of 1777, Thomas Paine’s call to duty, the French alliance with the United States, America’s currency woes, and the rebuilding of General Washington’s army.

5. HARDSHIP, PERSEVERANCE, AND VICTORY (11 minutes, 20 seconds). Covers battles at sea (such as John Paul Jones' victory against British naval forces) and along the frontier (such as George Rogers Clark's triumph in South Carolina). Also included are Benedict Arnold's shift in loyalties, the guerrilla wars waged by Thomas Sumter and Francis Marion (“the Swamp Fox”), and America’s gradual retaking of the South. The segment concludes with the Battle of Yorktown, in which the American's, aided by French allies, defeat the British and end the War for Independence.

6. POSTWAR CHALLENGES (16 minutes, 20 seconds). Recounts the Treaty of Paris (securing the peace between Great Britain and the United States) in 1783, and examines the postwar difficulties arising in America, such as the war debt that crushed the economy, the military revolt that threatened the nation's fledgling government, the refusal of state governments to abide by the terms of the Treaty of Paris, the enactment of the Northwest Ordinance (Congress’ claim of authority over lands that had not achieved statehood), the struggle with Spain over navigation rights to the Mississippi River, and Daniel Shays’ armed rebellion against the Massachusetts court system. The program concludes with the call for a stronger federal government than the one created under the Articles of Confederation.