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"THE ABOLITIONIST" is a three-act play occuring
between the years, 1851 - 1861. The protagonist is
Jonah MacKenzie, a wealthy minister renowned
throughout the nation for his abolitionist activities.
His aristocratic wife, Elizabeth, is a partial
invalid from a stroke; and their only child, Reuben,
adoring his father, has gone on to become a minister
as well.
In Act I we learn that Jonah is torn between an
equally intense love and hatred for his son whom he
and his wife have banished. Mary Beaton, a young
well-to-do neighbor, once engaged to Reuben but
secretly in love with his father Jonah, comes to visit
and implores Jonah to find his son and reconcile.
Elizabeth, overhearing Mary's entreaties, and wary of
the young lady's intentions toward her husband, wheels
herself in and commands Mary to leave, never to
return.
Act II occurs in the past (1851) and focuses upon the
abolitionist activities of father and son. We find
them in the Free state of Ohio where Jonah delivers an
impassioned sermon against slavery in a little church
near the Kentucky (a slave state) border, dodging
stones. Jonah then visits his friends, Moses and
Kathleen Pendleton, leaders of the Underground
Railroad. Meantime, Reuben is in Kentucky, present at
a slave auction. He is smitten with love for an
exquisitely beautiful mulatto named Veronica. She is
purchased by a murderous slave-holder, Roland
Jeffries, from whose Kentucky plantation early in the
morning Reuben rescues her. He brings her to the
Pendletons. Determined to retrieve the slave-girl,
Jeffries barges in, shooting and wounding Jonah who is
barring the way. Reuben enters in time to save
Veronica and Jonah. Reuben escorts Veronica on the
Underground Railroad to Canada where he proposes
marriage to her. At first dissenting, pointing out
the probable social consequences, Veronica yields.
Though proud of his son's rescue of Veonica, upon
learning that his son intends to marry a negro Jonah
becomes enraged and forbids the marriage, threatening
disinheritance and banishment. The act ends with a
soliloquy by Reuben expressing horror at his fate.
Act III returns to the present. Elizabeth thinks she
has convinced Jonah to accept a professorship he's
been offered at Oxford University in England but he is
secretly determined to find Reuben. After initial
hesitation, but then swayed by Jonah's charm, Reuben
and Veronica consent to leave Toronto and live with
Jonah. When Jonah returns home to Boston he finds
that Elizabeth has suffered a new major stroke which
has left her in a vegetative state. Mary, once again
in vain, pursues Jonah, who, in turn - flattered by
daughter-in-law Veronica's coquetry and succumbing to
his own weakness of mind, impulsively attempts to
seduce her. Veronica's initial attraction to him
quickly turns to repugnance. Once again, Jonah
banishes Reuben and his daughter-in-law from his
household. The play ends on a catastrophic note just
before we hear the booming sound of cannon announcing
the advent of The Civil War.
Barry Bennett Blander
