The Crisis

In one of the first blockbuster novels of the 20th century, American author Winston Churchill describes the impassioned era of the "House Divided" in his native city of St. Louis. Merchant and slave owner Comyn Carvel and his vivacious daughter Virginia make no secret of their Southern sympathies, straining their friendship with abolitionist lawyer Silas Whipple. Whipple's young assistant, transplanted Bostonian Stephen Brice, encounters the horrors of slavery—and meets rising political star Abraham Lincoln. Virginia's cousin, Clarence Colfax, aspires to prove himself in battle for the South. And calculating Yankee businessman Eliphalet Hopper embraces only one cause: gaining wealth and respect at any cost. When these figures meet, sparks of passion, ambition, determination and love fly... igniting The Crisis.