Movies and TvShows featuring "pre-american-civil-war" theme.

Tracy Powell, an Indiana farmer, gets the gold fever and heads for Stockton, California in 1849. There, he abandons his first partner, Bert Killian, and teams up with Sam Wilkins, a claim jumper employed by Willis Haver. Six years later, Powell returns to Indiana and his sweetheart, Julie. They marry and he tries farming again but, on the night their son is born, he takes off again searching for gold. This time he heads for the hills with an inveterate prospector, Jimmo McCann. A decade later, the two are still hunting for their big strike when McCann is killed in an accident. Powell returns home with news of a big strike but the deserted Julie will have nothing to do with him. His friend Killian will not believe him but Haver, now a banker gives him a small loan and then beats him out of his claim. Many years pass before he comes home, now sixty-years-old, and this time, his wife and son open their home to him. But he vows to go prospecting come next spring.

Amistad is the true story of a group of enslaved Africans who's ship is taken over by them shortly after their departure from Havana, Cuba. The Africans then try to find their way back to Africa, taking the ship's navigation tools. They're brought to trial in New England where they're defended by an African-American attorney who's fighting for their freedom. The abolitionist movement is growing more and more powerful in America, making the sending of slaves back across the Atlantic a very controversial subject. The trial ends up in the Supreme Court. The Africans are represented by former US President John Quincy Adams (Hopkins).

James Mink is a black man in Canada who has built a very successful livery business, and enjoys a white wife and a beautiful daughter, Mary. An excellent match is arranged with an American businessman, but when he takes his new wife Mary across the border his true character emerges - he sells her into slavery. James and Elizabeth must go to Virginia to rescue their daughter.

In the 1860s, during the construction of the Kansas Pacific railroad, a group of saboteurs led by William Quantrill plot to disrupt the project and steal the payroll. A dedicated fireman, undercover army agent, and the railroad construction crew must come together to stop them and protect the railroad.

In the 1840s, a Texan senator seeks statehood for Texas while facing political rivalries and Comanche attacks. A cattle baron betrays him, leading to a series of gun battles, ambushes, and horseback chases. Amidst the turmoil, a love story unfolds and the fate of Texas hangs in the balance.