North and South: Book One

Just wanted to do a short summary of North and South: Book One. I have the eight DVD set of the three miniseries which ran in the 80s and 90s. The show is based on John Jakes novels about the US before, during and after the Civil War. The first book takes place before the Civil War and in the early days of the conflict.


The story revolves around the friendship of two men: one from the north George Hazard (James Read) and one from the south Orry Main (Patrick Swayze). The two men meet as cadets at West Point prior to the Civil War. They extended their friendship to include their families and fought together in the war with Mexico. Much of the story was about their idealogical differences, but when it came down to it they loved one another.

Orry's love interest was Madeline (Lesley-Anne Down, who was Jackie on B&B most recently), though they still weren't wed by the end of the first miniseries. Madeline believed she was white, but she was actually passing as her mother, who died in childbirth was light-skinned. Madeline had been drugged by her husband with laudanum, but with Orry's help was able to find herself again. George fell in love with an Irish girl named Constance (Wendy Kilbourne), who was the doctor who saved Orry's life in the war. They married and had a daughter. Virgilia (Kirstie Alley) was George's sister, who was as militant against slavery as some of the Southerners were for it. She was full of anger and it just got worse after she lost her runway slave husband Grady (Georg Stanford Brown). Orry had two sisters: Ashton (Terri Garber, who I first saw on Santa Barbara back in the 80s as Suzanne) was the bad girl in the story. She was everything her sweet younger sister Brett (Genie Francis best known as Laura on General Hospital, last seen on Y&R as Genevieve) wasn't, both in looks and attitude. Ashton would sleep with whomever she wanted to get her way, while Brett was kind and loving. Ultimately Brett married Billy (John Stockwell), who was George's younger brother. Billy and Charles (Lewis Smith) who was a cousin to Orry, Ashton and Brett, became best friends. They also went to West Point together. Ashton destroyed her relationship with the rest of the family when she tried to get Billy killed after his wedding to Brett. Madeline heard this discussion and Brett and Billy were rescued, before Billy was killed in a duel.

The first book, which aired originally in 1985 ended with the beginning of the Civil War. Orry had gone up from South Carolina to Pennsylvania to see George one last time. Orry felt like he owed George money due to their business partnership in the cotton mill as once the war began they couldn't work together. Like Ashton, Virgilia betrayed her brother by letting everyone know that Orry was in their home. Thankfully George and Orry were able to get Orry back to the South before he could be injured. That said they didn't know if they would see each other again as they would have to fight on opposite sides in war.

Watching on DVD, this miniseries was about 9 hours long with each chapter being about 90 minutes in length. If you like period dramas with large casts, this may be something you'd like to view. What I provided was an extremely short thumbnail view as it isn't something that should be fully spoiled as that ruins the enjoyment.