American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

The life of Blues and folk singer Huddie Leadbetter, nicknamed Leadbelly is recounted. Covering the good times and bad from his 20s to 40s. Much of that time was spent on chain gangs in the south. Even in prison he became well known for the songs he had composed and sung during and before the time he spent there.

An aspiring dancer and her two wicked sisters resent their mother's love for a foster daughter.

A free Black man from New York is tricked, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in the South, where he endures twelve years of brutal servitude before finding a way to contact his family and secure his freedom.

When his teenage son is shot by the Houston police following a stolen van chase, his father undertakes a tireless investigation into the truth and uncovers the fact that the gun found with the boy's body was a "throwdown," a weapon planted by the cops.