Sons & Daughters of Thunder

In 1834, if polite discussions about abolishing slavery were considered inappropriate among Americans in Northern states, then eighteen days of public student-sponsored debates on the divisive subject at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio were scandalous. Organized by Theodore Weld, one of the architects of the abolitionist movement, the shocking oratory sparked intense controversy and awakened a young Harriet Beecher Stowe to the horrors of slavery. When school trustees slapped a gag order on the "Lane Rebels," most of the students left the school in collective protest. Years later, Harriet's novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was described by President Abraham Lincoln as the book that started the Civil War. "Sons & Daughters of Thunder," a new film based on the award-winning play by Earlene Hawley and Curtis Heeter, tells the unforgettable true story of the beginning of the end of slavery in America.