History Series / NorthAndSouthUS

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Orry]] in the second miniseries, based on ''Love And War'' [[ spoiler: (in which Orry does get killed. But the final miniseries DroppedABridgeOnHim]].

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Orry]] is killed off at the beginning of ''Heaven and Hell''. Through creative use of [[StockFootage Archive Footage]], [[spoiler:Swayze]] walks through a doorway to be replaced by a stand-in, who (silently) bites the dust when Bent stabs him from behind.

* HotGuysAreBastards: Bent has an uncanny ability to woo the ladies, particularly when he's short on cash.

** Virgilia, fresh from Harper's Ferry, shows up bedraggled at her family home. Despite the evil in-laws voting to get rid of her, Constance doesn't have the heart to turn Virgilia away. It turns out [[HannibalHasAPoint the bigots had a point]]; Virgilia ransacks the silver and splits.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: UpToEleven with Bent, who in the book is described as obese and just plain disgusting.

** Justified, since she had to be able to pass for a 100% white person. [[spoiler:Even more so in the books, where she's merely an octoroon.]]

* TheIngenue: Madeline Fabray.

** Stanley Hazard and Charles Huntoon (Ashton's first husband) work with plenty of those; whether they are really all that sleazy themselves is debatable.

* BastardBastard: Bent was fobbed off onto an abusive foster home after his real father, a U.S. Senator, decided to cover up his own marital infidelities. The Bents mistreated him a good deal, and Sen. Edwards kept a wide berth. He only agrees to cut a check when Elkinah appears in his office as an adult -- under the condition that he never turn up again.

* BullyHunter & SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp: This would be Orry and Gerge's relationship with their old CO, Elkinah Bent.

* DastardlyWhiplash: The La Mottes are an entire family of Whiplashes. Elkinah Bent and Ashton Main are the main contenders, though.

* MaritalRapeLicense: Justin.

* TorchesAndPitchforks: Virgilia directs her Abolitionist mob to lynch Orry, but he slip away in time.

* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Virgilia is against slavery. Sensible. Believing that everyone from the southern USA is AlwaysChaoticEvil? Not so sensible. And it keeps going downhill from there, with her ruining her own life and arguably becoming more of a liability to her cause rather then an asset.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Ashton wraps her legs around every scoundrel in sight, but doesn't give her husbands the time of day. She suggests to one of her beaus, Forbes La Motte, that James Huntoon's essential decency is a turnoff.

* TheNeidermeyer: Elkanah Bent is first introduced as this. As punishment for a perceived slight, he puts Orry though an series of torturous exercises.

** Virgilia, fresh from Harper's Ferry, shows up bedraggled at her family home. Despite the evil in-laws voting to get rid of her, Constance doesn't have the heart to turn Virgilia away. It turns out [[HannibalHasAPoint the bigots had a point]]; Virgilia rips off the silver and splits.

-->'''George''': I'm glad you notice. Or else I couldn't [[TalkToTheFist give you this.]]

* CoolOldGuy & NatureHero: Adolphus the trapper. Not to be confused with [[{{Film/Dodgeball}} Patches O'Houlihan.]]

* CrankyLandlord: Cooper Main, who [[RememberTheNewGuy we have not seen prior ]]to [[spoiler:Orry]]'s death, rides in to pay his condolences and cheerfully reminds his widow that if she misses one payment, she's out on her ear. The remainder of Book Three consists of Cooper sabotaging her business, then pulling his hair out when she keeps making the rent.

* DistressedDamsel: Madeline, again.

-->'''Cooper:''' '''[[YouFOOL You're a fool!]]'''

* {{Expy}}: Raph is a pretty clear riff on [[GoneWithTheWind Rhett Butler]].

--->"[[YouRemindMeOfX You remind me of]] [[DoubleEntendre a horse I had once]]."

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: In ''Heaven and Hell'', [[spoiler: Ashton has been disowned by Orry]] and now irks out a living as a Sante Fe prostitute.

* LeanAndMean: In Chapters One and Two, Ashton is a quintessential fair-skinned, voluptuous aristocrat. By the time 1994 rolled along, Terri Garber was leaner and tanned from her role on ''{{Dynasty}}''; it worked perfectly for a weather-beaten, hungrier Ashton.

* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler: Bent]].

* TookALevelInBadass: Charles grew up getting into scraps, took on 3 drunken brawlers at once, beat a man (in accuracy) at a duel, attended West Point, served Texas and fought Indians, as well as chased Mexican gang lords all over the country. When a buddy of Forbes decides to pull a knife on him at Billy's duel, Charles plainly informs him he picked the wrong man for that.
* VillainExitStageLeft: Ashton's plans [[IncrediblyLamePun go up in smoke]] when she evicts Madeline from Mont Royal, only to discover that [[spoiler: the house has long been burned down. She is then led away by her now-husband, signaling her (apparent) reformation]].

** Wayne Newton as the overseer of Libby Prison is quite a sight to behold. He hisses, he glares, he clacks his teeth maniacally. It's hard not to laugh at a sadist when he's on the brink of singing "Danke Schön" at any moment.

* CoolOldGuy & NatureHero: Adolphus the trapper. Not to be confused with [[{{Film/Dodgeball}} Patches O'Houlihan.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Orry Main has bad luck with trains. The first time he arrives at a Yankee train station, he is harassed for his southern accent, leading into a brawl. The second time, Virgilia's mob stops the train and tries to lynch him. Why can't a southern gentlemen travel by rail unmolested? The third time, Orry finally has enough, whips out his cutlass and goes to town on some muggers.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Orry Main has bad luck with trains. The first time he arrives at a Yankee train station, he is harassed for his southern accent, leading into a brawl. The second time, Virgilia's mob stops the train and tries to lynch him. The ''third'' time, Orry whips out his cutlass and goes to town on some muggers.

* SilkHidingSteel: Madeline overhears Justin's plans to have Billy bumped off, but is too woozy from drugs to escape the house unmolested. Justin strikes her, but pauses a moment to tell his slaves to beat it -- giving Madeline just enough time to unsheathe a decorative sword and bury it in her husband's face.

* BastardBastard: Bent was fobbed off onto an abusive foster home after his real father, a U.S. Senator, decided to cover up his own marital infidelities. The Bents mistreated him a good deal, and his Sen. Edwards kept a wide berth. He only agrees to cut a check when Elkinah appears in his office as an adult -- under the condition that he never turn up again.

The focal point of the saga is a budding [[HeterosexualLifePartners bromance]] between Orry Main of South Carolina and George Hazard of Pennsylvania. The two become best friends while attending [[MilitaryAcademy West Point]], but later find themselves and their families on opposite sides of the war. The slave-owning Mains are [[DeepSouth rural gentleman planters]] while the big-city Hazards are heavy in industry, their differences reflecting the social divisions that eventually led to the Civil War.

The books were adapted into a TV MiniSeries starring Creator/PatrickSwayze and James Read. The series aired on Creator/{{ABC}} between 1985-94, clocking in at [[TheEpic 1212 minutes]]. In addition to being a StarMakingRole for Swayze, a number of then-unknown actors Creator/ForestWhitaker and Creator/JonathanFrakes, to name two) also saw their careers get a boost.

* EightiesHair: Averted for the most part, though Ashton's hair occasionally strains credibility.

* TheAlcatraz: The infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Prison Libby Prison]].

* AnArmAndALeg: In the novels, Orry's arm is amputated following a skirmish. Fangirls don't go for [[WalkingShirtlessScene that sort of thing]], so Orry instead sees his leg permanently wounded in the miniseries.

* BastardBastard: Bent was fobbed off onto an abusive foster home after his ''real'' father, a U.S. Senator, decided to cover up his own marital infidelities.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Ashton.

* BullyHunter / SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp: This would be Orry and Bent's relationship.

* CainAndAbel: Seemingly everybody has an evil sibling around someplace.

* CoolOldGuy / NatureHero: Adolphus.
* TheCorrupter: The Ku Klux Klan functions as one to Cooper.
* CrankyLandlord: Cooper Main, who we have not seen prior to [[spoiler:Orry]]'s death, rides in to pay his condolences and cheerfully reminds his widow that if she misses one payment, she's out on her ear. The remainder of Book Three consists of Cooper sabotaging her business, then pulling his hair out when she keeps making the rent.

* DarkSecret: Ashton's discovery (through Bent) that [[spoiler: Madeline]]'s late mother was not only black, but a high-class prostitute to boot.

-->'''Cooper:''' Why would you wish me that?\\
'''Madeline:''' ''(exasperated sigh)'' Because I bear you no malice, Cooper.\\
'''Cooper:''' '''[[YouFool You're a fool!]]'''
* EvilIsHammy: ''Ye gods'', Elkanah Bent.

* EvilIsPetty: Bent ''never'' forgets. When ordered to quit leaning on George and Orry, Bent vents his frustration by knocking a cadet down a gulley.

** Virgilia, fresh from Harper's Ferry, shows up bedraggled at her family home. Despite the evil in-laws voting to get rid of her, Constance doesn't have the heart to turn Virgilia away. It turns out [[HannibalHasAPoint the bad guys had a point]]; Virgilia steals the silver and splits.

-->"Oh, what the hell." ''*pow!*''

* InformedAbility: Bent repeatedly claims to be an outstanding military tactician, and especially loves to bring up how one of his West Point instructors compared him to Napoleon. We never see any evidence though; he mostly just shoots his own men.

* {{Soaperizing}}
* SpoiledBrat / TheVamp: Ashton.
* StuffBlowingUp
* SwordFight

* TorchesAndPitchforks: Virgilia directs her Abolitionist mob to lynch Orry, but he escapes in time.

* WantedPoster
* WarForFunAndProfit
* WeWillMeetAgain:

* BreakTheHaughty: Ashton collapsing in the dirt when she sees the scorches remains of Mont Royal, which she worked for years to buy back. Her last scene suggests a sort of redemption for the character.

''North and South'' is shorthand for a trilogy of books written by John Jakes: ''North and South'', set during the antebellum period of American history, ''Love and War'', which takes place during the [[AmericanCivilWar Civil War]], and ''Heaven and Hell'', which covers Reconstruction and the period of [[TheWildWest western expansion]] that followed.

* LadyInRed: Ashton, in her scenes with Bent.