My recent viewing of my "NORTH AND SOUTH Trilogy" DVD set, led me to
the "Special Feaures" section that featured a behind-the-scene look
at the television miniseries trilogy. In it, Patrick Swayze (Orry
Main), James Read (George Hazard), Lesley Anne-Down (Madeline Fabray)
producer David Wolper and the trilogy's author, John Jakes discussed
both the literary and television versions of the saga. I found their
recollections of the trilogy's production very interesting and
entertaining. What I found surprising were the actors' admissions
that they found abolitionist Virgilia Hazard to be their favorite
character. Even more surprising was my discovery that John Jakes
shared similiar feelings.

In the saga, Virgilia Hazard (Kirstie Alley) was the only daughter of
iron manufacturer William Hazard (John Anderson) and his wife, Maude
(Inga Swenson) in Pennsylvania. She had three brothers - the eldest
sibling Stanley (Jonathan Frakes), the youngest Billy (John
Stockwell/Parker Stevenson) and middle brother George. Unlike most of
her family, Virgilia became a firm devotee of causes for women's
rights, civil rights for free Northern blacks and especially the
abolitionist cause in mid-19th century United States. In fact, one
could honestly say that Virgilia's devotion to abolition drifted into
fanaticism.

Virgilia ended up being one of the most complex characters that
author Jakes had ever created. On one hand, her fanaticism, tactless
behavior, self-righteousness and bigotry toward all Southern-born
whites made her a very unpleasant person. Just how unpleasant could
Virgilia be? She had a tendency to air her beliefs to anyone within
hearing range, regardless of whether they wanted to listen to her or
not. She became so blind and bigoted in her self-righteousness toward
Southern whites - especially those of the planter-class that she
failed to notice that despite her brother George's close friendship
with the son of a South Carolina planter, Orry Main, he had also
become a devoted abolitionist and civil rights advocate by the eve of
the Civil War. If she had been willing to open herself more to the
Mains, she would have discovered another potential abolitionist in
their midst - namely Orry's younger Cousin Charles.

Her tactless behavior nearly cost George's friendship with Orry, when
she helped Grady (Georg Sandford Brown), the slave of the Mains'
neighbor, James Huntoon (Jim Metzler), escape from slavery during the
Hazards' visit to South Carolina. That same tactless behavior led her
to take part in John Brown's 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry and expose
herself needlessly to the local militia. And because of this, Grady -
now her husband - rushed forward to save her ended up dead, instead.
One of Virgilia's worst acts - at least to me - was when she had
tossed away her convictions and self-esteem to become Sam Greene's
(David Odgen Stiers) mistress, following her confrontation with a
hospital administrator (Olivia DeHavilland) over a Confederate
officer's death. All over a matter of survival. She had no problem
with confronting her family and neighbors' scorn over her devotion to
abolition. She had no problem with confronting the Mains in her
complicity to help Grady escape. But when she faced a murder
investigation, she threw her self-esteem to wind and lowered herself
to the level of a prostitue to stay out of prison.

But for all of her faults, Virgilia also possessed a great deal of
virtues. Why else would the likes of Swayze and Read declare that she
was their favorite character? One cannot help but admire her
resilient devotion to the abolitionist cause, which was not very
popular with most of her family and fellow Northerners. She was open-
minded enough to look past Grady's skin color and view him as an
attractive man, worthy for her hand in marriage. Many, including most
of the Hazards, had excused her marriage to Grady as a political
statement. One member of the Hazard family knew the truth - George's
Irish-born wife, Constance Flynn Hazard (Wendy Kilbourne).

And while many "NORTH AND SOUTH" fans may have abhorred Virgilia's
habit of speaking her mind, I cannot help but admired it. If I must
be honest, I really enjoyed Virgilia's habit of confronting her
family and the Main family about slavery and reminding them of the
institution's horrors. I feel that it took a lot of guts on her part
and I admired her for this. Virgilia's practice of "telling it like
it is" seemed very apparent in three scenes:

*Philadelphia Abolitionist Meeting - in which she gave a speech about
the practices of slave breeding on Southern plantations. Despite
Orry's outraged reaction to her speech, it turns out that Virgilia
had spoken the truth. Due to the United States' official banning of
the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1808, many Southern planters were forced
to resort to the deliberate breeding of their female slaves to either
maintain the number of slaves in the South or to make a fortune in
selling such slaves when the value of their land depleted.

*Opposition to the Mexican-American War - during Orry's first meeting
with the Hazard family, Virgilia made her disgust and opposition to
the United States' threat to wage war against Mexico very clear,
claiming that many of the war's supporters saw it as an opportunity
to conquer Mexican territory and use it for the expansion of slavery.
I hate to say this, but slavery's expansion had been a strong reason
for those who supported the idea of war.

*Confrontation Over Grady's Escape - this is without a doubt, my
favorite scene in which Virgilia confronted her family and the Mains
over her disgust with slavery. Hell, I had practically cheered the
woman as she made it clear that not only the South, but the entire
country will eventually pay a price for its complicity in the
institution of slavery. And she had been right.

It took a brave woman to willingly pursue a cause that many found
unpopular . . . and make her convictions to others, quite clear.
Hell, I think that she had more balls than all of the men in her
family. Even more so, she did not hide her beliefs and convictions
behind a personable veneer in order to soothe the sociabilities of
her family and their friends.

I had discovered that both Lesley Anne Down (Madeline Fabray) and
David Carridine (Justin LaMotte) had both received Golden Globe
nominations for their performances in the first miniseries. Frankly,
I find this appalling for I believe that Kirstie had deserved a
nomination, as well. Probably even more so, considering that she had
a more difficult role. I wonder if both Swayze and Read had felt the
same.