Judgment Day, focuses on the final years before the Civil War and the eventual, bloody end to the institution of slavery. As the nation expanded westward and thousands of slaves from the South were marched into the new territories, American citizens were forced to decide whether the nation would be slave or free. Judgment Day examines how abolitionists struggled for an American future built on freedom for all. Says historian Eric Foner of Columbia University, "Can we exist as a multi-racial society? Can this be a society of equality between people of different backgrounds, different colors, different races? Those questions are still not really answered."