Episode 5’s pursuit of America is a battle to reclaim and expand on the ideals animating the Declaration of Independence.

In the years surrounding the Civil War, Philadelphians confront the chaotic unraveling of city and nation. Anti-immigrant fervor builds against Irish Catholics as American urban life fractures and tensions explode into violence, what will be known as the Bible Riots.

A rising class of Black Philadelphians, led by the Rev. William Catto, transform an agriculture school in the Fourth Ward into the top high school for Black students in a nation that denies all Black people basic civil rights, including the right to vote. Catto’s son, Octavius Valentine Catto, a brilliant student, and his classmate, Jacob White, confront Pennsylvania Gov. James Pollock when he visits their school, the Institute for Colored Youth, demanding equal rights.

By the time Abraham Lincoln is elected president in 1860, Philadelphia is a few years into an effort to mend divisions, the largest effort of municipal unification yet in American history. And when southern states join together to secede from the nation, Philadelphians of all backgrounds rise to defend the Union, including Democrat William McMullen, the Irish Catholic power broker of the Fourth Ward.

But when Lincoln stops at Independence Hall on George Washington’s birthday, his life is in danger. When the Civil War breaks out, Philadelphia’s railroad tycoons and rising industrial moguls create the Union League, giving money and power to a nationwide effort to bolster the Union Army.

After President Lincoln falls to an assassin’s bullet, 500,000 Philadelphians line the streets as his body is brought to lie in state in the same room where the founders created the United States less than a century before. All this upheaval is powerfully brought to life by UCLA sociologist Marcus Anthony Hunter, Lincoln Prize-winner Allen Guelzo, and journalists Daniel Biddle and Murray Dubin, authors of “Taste of Freedom.”

Author Kalela Williams’ personal reflections center the episode’s original approach to the Civil War and Reconstruction. Revealing the largely untold story of Philadelphia’s multifaceted and central role in preserving the union and advancing Reconstruction, Episode Five also traces the brutal costs. Octavius Catto, the rising civil rights leader, speaks alongside Frederick Douglass during the grand celebrations of the 15th Amendment, a position that puts him in the crosshairs of those hoping to maintain the racial status quo.

Director: Andrew Ferrett

Writers: Nathaniel Popkin and Andrew Ferrett

Executive Producer: Sam Katz

Producers: Wendy Cox, Andrew Ferrett, Jonathan Kohl, Nathaniel Popkin

Editor: Rachel Sophia Stewart

Director of Photography: Paul Van Haute

Narrator: Michael Boatman

Music: Daniel Slatkin