The heirs of Cain

The Heirs of Cain (OT: North and South ) is a historical novel by the American author John Jakes from 1982. In the style of a family saga, it depicts the friendship of the families of West Point graduates George Hazard and Orry Main at the time from 1842 to 1861 against the backdrop of the looming American Civil War .

action

George Hazard from Lehigh Station , Pennsylvania, is on his way to West Point with his family to begin military training at the local military academy. In New York he meets Orry Main, a young Southerner, son of a plantation owner from South Carolina , and helps him fight several attackers. The two quickly become friends and begin their careers at the military academy together. Her fellow students at the Academy include George Pickett , George B. McClellan, and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson . During this time they are harassed by Elkanah Bent, an officer candidate from Ohio.

During a home vacation, Orry meets young Madeline Fabray, with whom he immediately falls in love, but who marries the cold-hearted plantation owner Justin LaMotte a few days later.

After completing their training, George and Orry fight in the Mexican-American war : they come under the command of Bent, who orders them to launch a dangerous attack in which Orry loses his left arm. After the war, George returned to his family, an iron foundry dynasty, married the Irish-born Catholic Constance, whom he had met on the way to Mexico in Texas , and took over the management of his father's iron works Hazard Iron with his brother Stanley, who was not gifted in business matters . Orry returns to South Carolina, traumatized, to his parents' Mont Royal plantation . Here Orry's older brother Cooper tries to convince his father Tillett of the necessary technical innovations on the plantation - when that fails, Cooper settles in nearby Charleston and tries his hand at becoming a ship designer and shipowner. Orry finds new courage to face life when he begins to raise his teenage cousin Charles to be a gentleman. He also meets regularly in secret with the unhappily married Madeline.

The Hazard and Main families stayed in contact for years, even if the increasing political tensions between the American northern and southern states and the families' different views on the issue of slavery in the southern states are increasingly burdening the relationship. However, George and Cooper become business partners and George's youngest brother Billy intends to marry Orry's youngest sister, Brett. Ashton, the older of the Main daughters, first hooked up with Billy Hazard; When he falls in love with Brett, she marries the Charleston lawyer James Huntoon. In the mid-1850s, Billy and Charles graduate from the academy at West Point and are first transferred to the American West, where Charles must serve and suffer under Bent.

At the end of the novel, South Carolina secedes from the Union and after the attack on Fort Sumter in 1861, the American Civil War broke out. Brett and Billy, who was stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston until shortly before the war began , married on Mont Royal . Orry, who was staying with George at the time the war broke out, had to leave Pennsylvania in a hurry.

Characters

George Hazard

George Hazard is the second eldest son of iron foundry owner William Hazard of Lehigh Station, Pennsylvania. At the beginning of the novel in 1842, he was about 17 years old when he began his training at West Point. On the way there he becomes friends with Orry Main. After graduating, both fight in the Mexican-American War. After the death of his father, he takes over his ironworks. He marries Constance Flynn, whom he met in Texas on the way to Mexico. Constance and George have two children, William III. and Patricia. He invested in a shipbuilding project by Cooper Main, which, however, no longer came about due to the impending civil war. With the beginning of the Civil War, he accepted an offer from the government to rejoin the Union Army.

Orry Main

Orry Main is the second oldest son of the plantation owner Tillet Main. In 1842 he began his training at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he befriended George Hazard. With Hazard he fought in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), in which he was badly wounded and lost an arm. Due to his wounding, he retires from military service. After the death of his father, he takes over the management of his plantation, where slaves are kept. He promotes the development of his younger cousin Charles and motivates him to go to West Point. Orry loves Madeline LaMotte, the unhappily married wife of neighboring plantation owner Justin LaMotte. After their marriage fails, he takes in Madeline and they become a couple. At the end of the novel, he joins the Confederate Army.

Members of the Main family

Cooper Main

Cooper is the eldest son of Tillet Main. He sees the future of his country in technical progress and considers the practice of slavery to be out of date. Cooper marries Judith and the couple have two children. Not being able to assert himself with his progressive views, Cooper leaves Mont Royal and becomes a shipowner in Charleston. He and George become business partners, but a keeled cargo ship cannot be completed because of the impending war. At the beginning of the war, Cooper and his family went to Europe to establish trade contacts for the Confederate States. He is transferring his shipyard and shipping company to the Confederation, although he was previously critical of the secession.

Ashton Main

Ashton is the younger sister of Cooper and Orry. She is scheming and calculating and uses her physical stimuli to achieve her goals from a young age. As a teenager, she falls in love with Billy Hazard, who rejects her in favor of Brett. She marries lawyer and secessionist James Huntoon, but also has an affair with Forbes LaMotte. She instigates an attack on Billy Hazard, which is why Orry finally expels her from Mont Royal.

Brett Main

Brett is the youngest of the four Main siblings. She falls in love with Billy Hazard, marries him shortly before the outbreak of war and moves with him to Pennsylvania.

Charles Main

Charles is the nephew of Tillet Main, who grew up on Mont Royal after the death of his parents. At first he feels marginalized by the family until Orry takes care of him and motivates him to complete an apprenticeship at West Point. After graduating from West Point, he was transferred to Texas, where he served under Elkanah Bent, who tried to kill him several times for Charles' initially unknown reasons. After the secession, he leaves the Union Army and returns to Mont Royal. With the start of the civil war, he joins the Confederate Army.

Members of the Hazard family

Virgilia Hazard

Virgilia is the eldest of the four children of Wiliam and Maude Hazard. She is an abolitionist and a radical opponent of slavery and therefore very hostile towards the Main from the start. She marries the runaway slave Grady and lives with him in poor conditions. Grady is killed in a robbery. George and Constance give Virgilia lodging again and again, which repeatedly leads to scandal when Virgilia and members of the Main family meet.

Stanley Hazard

Stanley is the older brother of George. He is not a good businessman and instead tries to gain influence in politics by sponsoring influential people. He is encouraged by his ambitious wife Isabell. The couple have two sons. When the war began, Stanley and his family moved to Washington in the hope of political influence.

Billy Hazard

William "Billy" Hazard, the youngest son of the family, goes to West Point like his brother George, where he studies with Charles. He is then assigned to a pioneer unit that is stationed at different locations, most recently in Fort Sumter in Charleston. He loves Brett Main and they both get married shortly before the start of the civil war.

Madeline Eugenie Fabray

Madeline is from New Orleans and is 1/8 African American. She meets Orry while on her way to her wedding with the plantation owner Justin LaMotte. The marriage to Justin, who psychologically abuses her and puts her on medication to make her compliant, is unhappy. Nevertheless, she remains loyal to him, although she secretly meets Orry Main several times. When Justin becomes violent, she escapes from Orry's estate in Mont Royal, plans to divorce Justin and the two become a couple.

Elkanah Bent

Bent from Ohio is the instructor for George and Orry at Westpoint. These get into arguments with him several times, which, in Bent's opinion, has damaged his career and for which he seeks revenge. In the Mexican War, he sends George and Orry on a dangerous mission, which costs Orry his arm. Later he is Charles' superior officer in Texas and tries to kill him several times, but on the other hand feels drawn to him. At the beginning of the war he was an officer in the Union Army.

publication

North and South entered the New York Times bestseller list at number 12 in 1982 and topped it for four weeks in February 1982. It was the eighth best-selling novel in the United States in 1982.

The German-language first edition Die Erben Kain was published in 1987 by Bastei-Lübbe .

Sequels

The novel has two sequels: Love and War was published in 1984 and Heaven and Hell in 1987.

The German first edition Liebe und Krieg was published in 1987 and Heaven and Hell in 1988

filming

The first two volumes of the novel trilogy became known primarily through the film version produced by Warner Bros. Television in 1985 / '86 as a twelve-part television miniseries under the title North and South (Eng .: Torches in the Storm ), which thanks to the star cast and elaborate equipment became an international success. The film adaptation differs from the novel in numerous details, while individual scenes have been taken over almost word for word. The character Cooper Main and his family are completely missing in the film adaptation of the first and second volume; the relationship between Orry and Madeline and their unhappy marriage to Justin, who was also violent in the film from the start, takes up more space in the film than in the book. Orry doesn't lose his arm in the film either. In the book, the Mains grow rice , in the film it's cotton .