(CNN) Genealogical website Ancestry.com has apologized for a video advertisement depicting a white man in the 1800s telling a black woman they can "escape to the north."

The ad, which aired on television and was posted on YouTube, shows the characters dressed in clothing from the 1800s running through an alley when they stop to talk.

The man holds a ring in his left fingers and tells the woman, named Abigail, that they can escape to the north. She starts to reply but he cuts her off saying they can go across the border where there is a place they can be together.

"Will you leave with me?" the man asks.

Critics said the commercial evoked images of slavery in the United States and a time when black women were subjugated and raped by white slave owners.

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