Overview
Please note: This title is in the public domain and does not require a license for performance.
This classic melodrama, first staged in 1857, pulls from the rich tapestry of America's pre-Civil War history, yet could have been ripped from today's headlines. The play follows the ascent and demise of banker, Gideon Bloodgood, during the financial panics of 1837 and 1857, in the aftermath of stealing the life’s savings of a hardworking Captain Fairweather. Over twenty years, the lives of the Bloodgood and Fairweather families unfold along parallel paths, and so emerge new villains and untapped heroes, until finally an eleventh-hour reprieve arrives from an unexpected source.