Episode 1 launches the epic story of the transatlantic slave trade. Divers from Diving With a Purpose go in search of sunken slave ships. Hollywood icon Samuel L. Jackson goes on a personal journey to meet the tribe of his ancestors for the first time.

Samuel L. Jackson recruits two award-winning journalists to go on a mission to understand the process that led Europeans to see slavery as profitable, rational and justified. Diving With a Purpose divers locate the earliest slave wreck ever found.

Shot on location in Suriname, Brazil, Portugal and the UK, this episode investigates the economics of the slave trade, while searching for a sunken slave ship that represents the single greatest loss of life during the entire slave trade.

Samuel L. Jackson visits Africatown, Alabama, the only African town established in America. The Diving With a Purpose divers help youths in Costa Rica discover their African heritage, by diving and identifying a sunken slave ship off their coast.

This episode investigates African resistance to slavery in Africa and the “Underground Railroad.” The Diving With a Purpose divers embark on an investigation to positively identify a preserved wreck that ferried African Americans to freedom.