It's the Revolutionary War in 1776. You are an enslaved African in America. The British ask you to fight your American slave masters and gain your freedom. What do you do?

This is one of the questions that intrigued historian Simon Schama about this incredible adventure story set against the backdrop of a pivotal moment in Anglo American history.

Combining Schama's trademark compelling storytelling with reconstruction and dramatisation, Rough Crossings challenges many of the preconceived notions of this period, as it tells the story of the thousands of African-American slaves who decided their future freedom did not lie with the claims of liberty made by the American patriots, but with the British and their King.

Rough Crossings is the true drama of escape from cruel slave plantations, through the fires of the war to the dream of freedom in bone-chilling Nova Scotia and sweltering Sierra Leone. It is the story of a turbulent historical moment with a cast of memorable characters, such as Englishman John Clarkson, a passionate advocate of the great moral crusade of his age - the abolition of slavery - and two remarkable African men, Thomas Peters and David George, who escaped slavery and hardship to join Clarkson on an epic journey in search of their freedom.