Really Good Historical Fiction North and South covers two men on opposing ends of the Civil War. Starting in 1842 and ending in 1861 when Abraham Lincoln (Hal Holbrook) takes office, it shows a lot of bumps in the road along the way
Virgilia Hazard (later Grady) played by Kiristie Alley helping Garrison Grady (Gerog Stanford Brown) escape James Huntoon, she later takes part in the raid in Harpers Ferry with John Brown (Johnny Cash)
Orry Main (Patrick Swayze) and George Hazard (James Read) fight over the fate of an escaped slave when George is attempting to catch a freight train back to Pennsylvania.
Orry and George also deal with fallout over the fact that in a way, they both continue different forms of slavery, one legal, the other monetary (Irish immigrants living in shacks on Hazard Steel Land) with the illusion of freedom
The role of women: Virgilia and Madeline Fabray, as well as Ashton are put forth as differing degrees of feminist. Hear me out.
While Ashton uses her body to get ahead, N&S is about institutions and people within it whether it is West Point, Slavery, or society as a whole. She fights for herself "from the inside" worming her way into information
Virgilia takes on the outside, hard confrontation approach. She is part of Philadelphia's Abolitionist Society and chides Orry when he comes to visit. She will not be silenced
Madeline is someone who was cultured and has her own opinions, but is an example of people who have the foundation to stand strong on their own, but continually knocked down by Justin (David Carradine) and societal expectations. She still finds small ways to fight for herself and keep her independence, while still constrained by society
While I'm aware that some of the Southern chivalry and charm are dramatic, I don't buy for a minute that Mount Royal didn't whip slaves. It was the institution that was the problem if a slave hadn't been whipped at all.
Swayze and Read really shine in their roles, and the saga is quite good. I feel like a great level of care had been taken to really tap into the times and really make it palatable for the viewers, so a bit of history has been stretched or fudged.
I feel that overall, it's been a great capsule of pre Civil War historical fiction and honestly, it's not all that different from today with a myriad of issues. I would recommend it highly.