 That's the sound of a whiff. A whiff lashing the bare back of an African slave. I, Jane Swism, heard the whistle and crack of that punishing whiff and saw for the first time a human being in torment, much as I wanted to or couldn't stop that legal flogging. But then in there I took a note I was never to forget that I would raise my voice against all cruelty with all my strength and with all my heart's devotion and that no one should ever steal my voice nor force me to silence in the presence of this evil thing. Out of Jane's resolution came a famous anti-slavery newspaper under her own editorship. A journal edited and published not in Ladylike Gentile protest but in hot, glamorous anger. With the paper came trouble of course and with the anger long maintained at white heat came illness, illness and at last an enforced rest at the house of Jane's sister in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Last year really? It can't be Big Sister, Jane. Now Henry, who else could it be? I'm very glad to meet you Henry. Big Sister, literary Amazon, female abolitionist. Well you can't be up to the five foot march. Henry, he's my sister, not a sand of timber. All right, you girls get in the bucket at them. I'll put you down in the case right here, Jane. Golly, Lucy's down right pretty. Henry? All right, all right. Just that I was good and scared. After all we've heard about you, Jane, well I sure am relieved to lay eyes on you. That's all we might be in for trouble. Get up there, get up. Well, Jane, this is St. Cloud, all of it. That's an Indian over there isn't it? He's a soup and they still go on the war pass sometimes. Oh, Liz, this is thrilling. I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to your cabin at the lake. Oh, you wait till you see it, Jane. Just the thing for tired lady editors. Especially Eastern lady editors. No trouble. What's that over there? Henry, stop the carriage. Sure, oh, oh boy. Jane, what's the matter? I don't see anything. There, that Negro man sweeping up in front of the saloon. I thought I saw it. It is. That's a slave chain on his leg. Aren't there any hacksaws in Minnesota? We can't rightly take it off. He don't belong to us. Human beings can't belong to anybody. Now, Jane, you see, well, Captain Sealy, he owns that saloon and sort of runs the politics here about. That's his slave. But this is a free territory. This is the norm. Well, of course, Jane, but the Captain has a form, a plantation, down river in Missouri. Pretty hard to get any hard help out here these days, Jane. Real hard. So Sealy brings a few of his boys up with him. Well, some of us don't like it much, but, well, nobody wants to make trouble. So, get up. Come on, boy. Nobody wants to make trouble. Nobody has gumption enough to speak up against it. Now, now, Janey, Captain Sealy's not such a bad sort. Runs things sort of high-wide and handsome, but things do get run. Oh, he's just a terrible man, Jane. You've never met anyone like him back in. I wouldn't be too sure about that, Liz. Henry, are you sure nobody cares about such things? Here, here in this pretty town to see a man in chains. Well, I'll take it. Lots of folks are getting more and a little tired of Captain Sealy, but not tired enough. You see, he sort of lends those slaves of his around for free, too. Useful to have on the place when you're shorthanded like. Easy, Prince. Easy there. Oh, look. He sort of lends the slaves around. Sure. And there's no charge for the labor? Well, it ain't written down in front of no-notary public, but, uh, you don't use the captain's slaves and then vote against the captain's candidates, uh, gum-election. I see, uh. Henry, what this town needs is a good newspaper, a voice. Had one. Wouldn't call it good, exactly, as a voice that was, uh, well, sort of a force. Who ran it? Cap Sealy's brother-in-law. As an editor, he couldn't even spell C-A-T. But he got plenty ads thanks to the captain. Drank up all the profits, though. Hey. Oh, hold on. Henry, why are you stopping here? Jane. Jane, you see that shack over there all boarded up? Inside the printing press. You still looking for trouble, Jane? I-I-I don't know. Why? No one's that press? I do. Me. Henry Mitchell. Took it over for bad debts when Sealy got tired paying up for his drunken relation. Press still works, Jane. Want to be a voice in the wilderness? No. No, I-I won't do it. I-I came out here for rest. I need a rest. I'm not going to start another newspaper. I'm not going to do it. That's the boy, Josie. You're going to be a good journeyman friender when you grow up. Ink on your thumbs, boy. Ink on my thumbs, ma'am. Ink on your nose. All over my nose, ma'am. Ink in your hair. All over. Good. It's the finest smudge and the finest smell in the world, Josie. The smell of print as ink. It's the smell of truth if you make it so. You know what we're turning out here? No. It's a handbill, Josie, saying our first issue will be out tomorrow. I'll see who it is. Good morning. Good morning indeed, Mrs. Switham. Rare morning. An effulgent, I may say, sparkling, positively delightful morning. Cilly's the name. Captain Marcus Herolius, Fortunata Cilly, at your service. A pleasure, I'm sure, Captain. Mrs. Switham, I am truly and deeply sorry that I was not among those present here in some cloud upon the day of your arrival, so that I might have extended to you an official welcome on behalf of our town and on behalf of our state. Your fame has preceded you, ma'am, but I've been down the river on business. Your business, up and down the river, doesn't appeal to me, Captain, and I intend to say as much in my paper tomorrow. Ma'am, my friend's calling me Cap. Captain sounds sort of formal. Yes, doesn't it, Captain? Oh, no, no, ma'am. That's no way to talk. You and me, we've got to get along. I run this part of the state. You seem to be sat on running the only newspaper in my neck of the wood. Well, you and me, we've got interests in common. Lots of them. What you might call a community of interest. Captain Sealy, you own slaves, do you not? Well, in Missouri, yes. With the full consent of the law, ma'am. And in Minnesota, with the cowardly connivance of the people who don't want any trouble. What you're aiming at is to make this a slave state. That's true, isn't it? Mind if I smoke, Janey? Captain Sealy, I think you'd better get out of here. Well, I guess you don't care if I burn. That's an old joke, ma'am. It's an old Missouri joke. Look here, you female martyr. There's work to be done in this new state. There ain't enough white men out here yet to get it done. So I aim to import a few strong backs to bear the burdens that have to be born if we're going to reach anywhere here in Minnesota. That's my business. Your newspaper is my business, too. Look at it this way, Mrs. Martyr. This is a spread out town, mainly farms and scattered homesteads all over the county. You've got to distribute your paper through the post office, correct? And of course, you are postmaster or some such thing. Some such thing. I manage things in general around here. I license your paper to go through the mail, or I don't. Captain Sealy, do you seriously expect me to submit the censorship from you? Oh, great heavens, no, Janey. No, I'm an easy-going man. I like everything smooth. Smooth and understood in advance. We settle it now. Either get a license or you don't. Oh, I either agree, year and now, to support slavery or no paper. Is that it? Well, ma'am, you're famous as an abolitionist. I wouldn't expect you to come right out and support slavery in Minnesota. Just don't mention it. All you have to do is support me. It's almost, but not quite the same thing. You see, I want to make it easy as I can for you. Yes, yes, of course that does make it easier. I knew it. I figured you for a woman of sense. I said to myself, a woman who got to be as famous as that, she's had to learn the ways of the world. It's a deal then. I have no other course, Captain, have I? I'll have to rewrite my editorial for tomorrow, but it's a deal. Everything under control? Everything hunky-dory? Morning, Cap. Oh, yeah. Business is fine. Yeah. Hey, Pilly. Hey, Captain. What is it, Perkins? I thought you said you'd bought out that Mrs. ... what's her name? Is that her paper? It sure is. Listen to this. Editorial, it says. In order to publish the same cloud visitor at all, this editors had to agree to support Captain Marcus Sealy, which is the same as supporting slavery. Thus, this is the first of a series of editorials which will explain why we should have slavery in the north as well as in the south. Well, she did tell us. Quiet. It is a marvelously efficient social institution slavery, the only one ever thought of, in which we can at one and the same time, offend both the majesty of God and the dignity of man. Go on. Yeah. Dignity of man. Anyway. Oh, in conclusion, let us say that no one could give slavery more honest support than we will hear in these columns. All the others merely pretend to be supporting it while giving forth fake arguments. We shall tell the true reasons why all wicked men should support Captain Sealy and his hopes of making Minnesota a slave state. Hey, you ain't going to turn out to be a good loser, are you? A good loser? Kirk, I'm going to be even better than that. A winner? Well, Cap, viewed from here, you ain't no top man as of now. No. I'll show you who's the loser and who's the winner. You two. You got a date tonight, at midnight. All right, keep it quiet now. Cap, this press here belongs to Henry Mitchell. We can't break it up. Break it up? Why, that'd be against the law, Emory, to get people mad. Do you ever know me to go around and get people mad? Well, then, what are we doing here? I'll show you, Kirk. Just bring a light. Now, where's all the sticks of type? Now, there's, uh, let me see, uh, this row here and this one. And this one. Yeah. All right, let's go to work. And here, too, mustn't forget the small type. What do you mean, Cap? Go to work. Oh, Emory, you're dumb. Always will be dumb. These are all the S's. If she don't have any S's, she ain't gonna write about slavery, is she? Or see Lita, for that matter? Shut up, Emory. I gotta hand it to you, Cap. All right, come on, fill your pockets. And then we'll go down and throw every blurted S that she's got into the Mississippi. Into the Millerlithy, you mean? I think that should do it. Jane, you look so tired. Can I get you some hot milk? Oh, fine, Liz, thank you. I just never realized how many S's there are in the simplest sentence. Well, let's hear it. All right. We'll distribute it by itself on a single sheet. I simply can't write a whole S-less newspaper. It's headed Captain Ely. Captain Ely. Now, this is serious, isn't it, Emory? Now, listen. You all know of Captain Ely and the plan to import legal slavery into your territory. Okay, go, Navery. Can we be quiet? The time has come for truth. The good Captain worketh and Toileth mightily, but with one motive and no other, to make Ely money for Ely, by trading in negro people, men and women of good will. You named your territory with an Indian word for the clear blue water of a mountain lake, water far too clean and pure for the lowly lippery, liming, mud-loving eel. For the lowly lippery, limey, mud-loving eel. Hey, ain't you perky? Hey, hey, come on. Captain, stop, stop, stop. I told you all, often enough, I'm a winner, good winner, never a loser. In this town, by all its holy, I keep the score. The word, John Taper, stinking printer's ink, it don't mean a thing. What it words, if it get anybody, it's action that counts. It's yours, my name's Marcus Ely. That Swism woman is gonna be out of action for good and all. This time tomorrow. You're listening to the Cavalcade of America. Tonight's play, Troublesome Jane, starring Ruth Hudley with Kenny Delmar. In St. Cloud, Minnesota, almost a century ago, a woman editor, Jane Swism, noted as an abolitionist, started a newspaper. It was a thorn in the side of Captain Marcus Ely, the town's pro-slavery boss. And he's sworn to stop Jane from publishing it. And he's taken desperate action, action which results in... Ely, done? Yep, I heard. Might have burned down the whole town, that's included. Burned us in our beds. Yep. Well, ain't you men gonna do something, Boblet? I expect we are. At the moment, woman, I don't rightly know. Ask me that Miss Swism has been coming to her, showing at him all the time, ain't womanly, make anybody mad. I don't like newspapers. Can't read, anyway, much. Like fires, though, and I swear to give us. Guess you're against the talk about lynching him then, huh? Lynching, huh? Well, now that's something else again. Always did like a good lynching, better than a fire. It's close enough, Jane, and by heaven's sake, stay back against the wall where they can't see you. Henry, we can't let them mention we can't. All right, neighbors. This looks for me like it's past stop and zainlessness. All right, well, what we've got to decide tonight, we've been patient for a long time. But you know and I know what we've been patient against. Yeah! There was Ely just making sure he don't go anywhere. They've been there, would be no need for them guns. I see some of you brought. I got a... There's one thing we've got to think about. They've got to be stopped. They've got to. Jane, where are you going? Jane, come back here! Wait a minute. I don't like Steely. I hate everything he stands for. I hate slavery, as you all know, and I hate one-man rule. That's what Steely has enjoyed in this town up till now. I hate one-man rule almost as much as I hate mob rule, lawless rule, and that's what lynching would be. Go back where you came from and let us run our own town. Yeah! Wait a minute. It was Henry Mitchell and myself who were hurt by the fire. It was his building that was burned up and my paper that was put out of publication. But I say this to you. You can't lynch Steely. Please, please, you can't do that. Let's show her what we can do, boys. Come on, let's do it. Let's do it! Let me finish. Please, let me finish. But what Steely hated and tried to stop when he burned down our shop was something called freedom of the press. Yes, I know. I know. Words, words, words. You're all tired of words. But words are important. Steely doesn't believe in words. He doesn't believe in reason. He doesn't believe in anything. But he's a man and you are men. And you must hear him before you do this terrible thing to him and to yourselves. If you judge Steely without hearing him, you'll be doing just exactly what he tried to do to me and to my paper. Gentlemen, gentlemen, you have no proof that Steely set the fire. I think he did it. You think he did. But we have no proof. Listen now. She's right. Let's hear Steely. Let's hear what he has to say. The potter. Hey, potter. Bring Steely over here. Hand back to us. Hand back. Let him through. All right. Help him up, boys. Everybody. Fire down. Fire down. What the... I didn't set fire to anything. You know what I mean, right? Listen to me. Hear my side. Hear my side. Men, this time yesterday you were all my friends. I ain't a violent man. You ought to know it. Now, here's the truth. Maybe you'll want to lynch me for this, too, for all I know. This is what happened. See, I was mad at Mr. Swizzom. Couldn't mad. Some of the boys in me, we got crowbars in early just about dawn. It was three of us went down there. We got... We broke up that press. Yeah, we broke up the press and some of the pieces we threw in the river. But there wasn't any fire. No fire, no set of fire for. My own saloon's only a half a block away. You think I want... I want it burned down? I broke up a press. I admit it. And I promised here now to buy a new one. But that... That ain't no lynching offense. That's for the fire. No, I... Could you come up here? Help him up, Henry. Now, what is this? Quietly. Quietly. What happened? Her ambulance. We better kick ourselves once in a while. You're going at a great rate. This is our real... At the door, I'll go. Quite... Quite good morning. Morning, ma'am. You wish to see me? Yes, ma'am. My name's Moeve. I belong down the river. Down under Captain Sealy's plantation. Oh, what there? Yes, of course. I saw you the day I got here. You may not know it, Moses. But it was because of you that I started this newspaper. Yes, ma'am. And Captain Sealy, he says to give you these. What? Legions. The legions you were wearing that day. Yes, ma'am. You see the captain, he's free in this. Free in all of us. And I'm going to get paid a weed in money. You thought maybe these irons would make sort of a membrane for you. For all you've done here. Good day, ma'am. Good day to you. Thank you, Moses. Thank you. On your thumb, Josie. Someday you will, Josie. Someday you will. We're worried about next week's show. We're very happy to announce we'll have with us one of America's best-known storytellers, John Nesson. All of us have enjoyed seeing his MGM series, The Passing Parade, for many years. Well, he's with us tonight. Here is John Nesson. Thank you very much. And when I visit the Cavalcade next Tuesday, it will be my privilege to play the host in the story of two human beings. The first of them will be a blacksmith named Tom Davenport, and the second, a tiny little woman who is his wife, Emily. But of all the true stories I've ever found, this one is unique, as it is the case of a man and woman who loved each other very much, and yet somehow found the time to work together upon an invention that has changed our world. So Tom, the blacksmith, his wife, Emily, in story, and myself in the flesh, will all be with you on Cavalcade next Tuesday night. Until then, good evening. Tonight's original Cavalcade play, Troublesome Jane, was written by Luther Davis, and adapted from a section in the book, Female Persuasion by Margaret Saren Thorpe, published by the Yale University Press. The music for the DuPont Cavalcade is composed by Arden Cornwell, conducted by Donald Borey. Cavalcade star tonight, Ruth Hudley, is currently starring in the Broadway hit Goodbye My Fancy. Kenny Del Mar will soon be seen in the new Broadway production, Texas Little Doll. Your narrator, Ted Pearson. Cavalcade of America, directed by John Zoller, came to you this evening from the stage of the Velasco Theater in New York, and is presented by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry. Join the fun on People Are Funny tonight on NBC.