70 Films & TV Shows Set In North America During The 1850s
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Brigham Young
Illinois Iowa Utah The 1850s The 1840sThe Great American Motion Picture ! — Based on the story of the famous Mormon leader, it follows Brigham Young and his challenge to transport his people across the Rocky mountains to settle in Salt Lake City. The plot focuses on two fictitious characters, Jonathan Kent and Zina Webb and the hardships they have to face along the way.
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Way Down South
Louisiana The 1850sIn the pre-Civil War South, a plantation owner dies and leaves all his possessions, including his slaves, to his young son. While the deceased treated his slaves decently, his corrupt executor abuses them unmercifully, beating them without provocation, and he is planning to sell off the father'e estate--including the slaves--at the earliest opportunity so he and his mistress can steal the money and move to France. The young boy doesn't want to sell his father's estate or break up an of the slave families, and he has to find someone to help him thwart the crooked executor's plans.
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Gold Rush Daze
🇺🇸 United States of America The 1850s The 1840sA man stops for gas on his way to dig for gold. The man at the station tells him what it was like back in 1849 in San Francisco, which we see. A sucker is hauled off the street and sat down at a card game; he dashes off as soon as someone shouts "they found gold in the hills" but others stake claims before he can. He ends up chopping off a cliff, falling down, and landing in the hospital. The doctor gives him news of another gold strike and he rushes out to begin panning. After some more mining gags and a song, we see a montage of more failed gold strikes. Back to the present day, where the storyteller claims to have sworn off gold, until a rider passes through with news of another strike, when he trades the station for the car and sets out after the gold.
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Jezebel
Louisiana The 1850sThe South's Greatest Romance — In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.
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High, Wide and Handsome
Pennsylvania The 1870s The 1850sSINGING ADVENTURE! — The setting is a small town in 1870s Pennsylvania. Sally Waterson and her father have stopped in town with their traveling medicine show, but when their wagon catches fire, they find themselves stranded. They're taken in by Mrs. Cortlandt and her grandson, Peter, who is trying to set up a pipeline that will supply oil throughout the state. Sally and Peter soon fall in love and marry. Neither their marriage nor Peter's pipe dreams flow too smoothly.
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Wells Fargo
New York Missouri California The 1850s The 1860s The 1840sTOGETHER THEY BUILD A CONTINENT! He lives the magnificent adventure that saves a country and she shares the adventures of the man she loves! — In the 1840s, Ramsey MacKay, the driver for the struggling Wells Fargo mail and freight company, will secure an important contract if he delivers fresh oysters to Buffalo from New York City. When he rescues Justine Pryor and her mother, who are stranded in a broken wagon on his route, he doesn't let them slow him down and gives the ladies an exhilirating ride into Buffalo. He arrives in time to obtain the contract and is then sent by company president Henry Wells to St. Louis to establish a branch office.
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The Emperor of California
California The 1850s The 1840sThe film follows the life story of Johann Augustus Suter, the owner of Sutter's Mill, famous as the birthplace of the great California Gold Rush of 1848.
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Barbary Coast
California The 1850sLove was a gamble she couldn't afford to lose. — Mary Rutledge arrives from the east, finds her fiancé dead, and goes to work at the roulette wheel of Luis Chamalis' Bella Donna, a rowdy gambling house in San Francisco in the 1850s. She falls in love with miner Jim Carmichael and takes his gold dust at the wheel. She goes after him, Chamalis goes after her with intent to harm Carmichael.
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Frisco Kid
California The 1850sHe's the Two-Fisted Hero of the Square Mile of Hell the Devil Himself disowned! — After a roustabout sailer avoids being shanghaied in 1852 San Francisco, his audacity helps him to arise to a position of power in the vice industry of the infamous Barbary Coast.
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Gold Diggers of '49
🇺🇸 United States of America The 1850s The 1840sPorky and Beans are prospectors during the Gold Rush, but when a villain steals Porky's bag of loot Beans races to get it back so he can marry Porky's daughter Little Kitty.
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The Lash
California The 1850s The 1840sA nobleman returns home to Southern California after the Mexican American War to find his people mistreated by unscrupulous Americans.
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Fighting Thru
California The 1850sDan and Tennessee are successful gold miners. Ace Brady learns of their success and sends Fox to rob them. During the robbery Fox shoots Tennessee and Ace arrives to arrest Dan for the murder. Dan escapes but is now a wanted man.
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The Girl of the Golden West
🇺🇸 United States of America The 1850sA hard-bitten saloon girl falls for a dashing outlaw, and tries to keep the local sheriff from catching him and sending him to prison.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Louisiana The 1850sIn 1856, slave Eliza plans to marry George with the consent of the Shelbys, her masters, but George's owner prevents the wedding. A few years later, Eliza flees with her son, Harry, after learning the Shelbys plan to hand them over to a crooked creditor to prevent foreclosure. George also escapes and goes on the run while Eliza and Harry are captured and brought back home. Mother and son are separated as George tries to find them both.
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A Romance of the Redwoods
California The 1850sA young girl travels west to live with her uncle during the California Gold Rush only to find that he has been killed by Indians and his identity assumed by an outlaw.
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The Crisis
Mississippi The 1860s The 1850sAmerica's Greatest American Story — Stephen Brice, a young lawyer in Civil War-era St. Louis, falls in love with Virginia Carvel, the daughter of his benefactor. But she is loyal to the South and Brice is committed to Lincoln's cause. In the course of the war, their convictions separate them, and Virginia becomes engaged to her cousin Clarence Colfax, a Confederate officer. Brice becomes an officer under General Sherman, and eventually finds himself faced with the captured Colfax, facing execution for spying. Brice must decide whether or not to intercede in his rival's behalf.
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Salomy Jane
California The 1850sWhen beautiful Salomy Jane resists the romantic advances of a young ruffian, she is rescued by Jack Dart, who has his own additional reasons for tangling with the man. Jack fights the ruffian and kills him. He escapes with the law on his trail, for it is (wrongly) presumed that he is also the man who held up the stagecoach. Salomy Jane comes to his rescue when he is captured and about to be lynched.
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The Courtship of Miles Standish
Massachusetts The 1850s The 17th CenturyA short silent film based on the poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Kentucky The 1850sBased on the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe: Eliza, a slave who has a young child, pleads with Tom, another slave, to escape with her. Tom does not leave, but Eliza flees with her child. After getting some help to escape the slave traders who are looking for her, she then must try to cross the icy Ohio River if she wants to be free. Meanwhile, Tom is sold from one master to another, and his fortunes vary widely.
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Redeeming Love
California The 1850sA retelling of the biblical book of Hosea set against the backdrop of the California Gold Rush of 1850.