Sons & Daughters of Thunder

Juneteenth commemorates the official end of slavery in the United States on June 19, 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce that enslaved Black Americans were free. Although President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it was virtually unenforceable in areas out of Union control, leaving 250,000 enslaved people in Texas in bondage. In 2021, following decades of grassroots advocacy by the African American community, Juneteenth National Independence Day was signed into law as an official U.S. federal holiday. Today, Juneteenth celebrates African American resilience and achievement, while preserving history and community traditions. To stream or purchase Sons & Daughters of Thunder, click HERE! Return to FourthWallFilms.com

Sons & Daughters of Thunder , a film by Emmy® award-winning filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films , received three regional Emmy Nominations in October of 2019:  Best Arts/Entertainment, Original Score, Screenplay. Sons & Daughters of Thunder is based on the play written by Earlene Hawley and Curtis Heeter, and tells the unforgettable true story of the beginning of the end of slavery in America. The play was adapted for the screen by Kelly Rundle and Tammy Rundle. The award-winning film features an original score by William Campbell, the composer behind the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Lifeboat”. In 1834, if polite discussion about abolishing slavery was considered inappropriate among Americans in Northern states, then eighteen days of public student-sponsored debates on the divisive subject at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio were scandalous. Organized by Theodore Weld (Thomas Alan Taylor), one of the architects of the abolitionist movement, the s...

Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe was born on June 14th, 1811, now celebrated as Flag Day in the United States. She was an American author and abolitionist who came from the religious Beecher family. In 1832, at the age of 21, Harriet Beecher moved to Cincinnati, Ohio , to join her father, who had become the president of Lane Theological Seminary , where the infamous Lane Debates took place. Harriet was influenced by the Lane Debates on Slavery  held over 18 days in February 1834, between colonization  and abolition defenders. Abolitionist Theodore Weld and his "Lane Rebels" won the debates. While in Cincinnati, Harriet met Rev. Calvin Stowe, a widower who was a professor of Biblical Literature at the seminary. They married at the Seminary on January 6, 1836. The Stowes had seven children, including twin daughters   Her Cincinnati experiences inspired the writing of the popular novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions experienced by ens...

 We are celebrating Juneteenth with an 1834 speech given by student James Bradley at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio at the nation's first anti-slavery debates. Bradly, a former slave, was Lane Seminary's only black student. James Bradley is portrayed by actor Jaylen Marks To stream or purchase the Emmy-nominated and award-winning film SONS & DAUGHTERS OF THUNDER by Fourth Wall Films, click HERE .  

Where it all began--with the lady in gold. "Sons & Daughters of Thunder" (2019) was based on a play of the same name written by playwright Earlene Hawley, with the assistance of writer Curtis Heeter. The dapper man next to her is her husband Kent. They were the key supporters behind the 3-time Emmy nominated docudrama that was released just before COVID changed the course of history. Here they stand in Corinthian Hall at the Karpeles Manuscript Museum in Rock Island, Illinois in 2014 as extras with cast members: Daniel Hale (Calvin Stowe), Jessica Taylor (Harriet Beecher) and Thomas Alan Taylor (Theodore Weld). See the full list of the cast at IMBD. We miss both of them so much and will forever be grateful for their knowledge, consultation, support, encouragement and treasured friendship. To stream or purchase Sons & Daughters of Thunder, click HERE! Return to FourthWallFilms.com

Theodore Dwight Weld, the architect of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years (1830-1844) was born November 23, 1803. He was a  writer, editor, speaker, and organizer and is best known for his co-authorship of the authoritative American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses ,  published in 1839.  In 1834 he organized the first public debates on the divisive topic of slavery at Lane Seminary School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thomas Alan Taylor as Theodore Weld in Sons & Daughters of Thunder. “Every man knows that slavery is a curse. Whoever denies this, his lips libel his heart,” said Weld. Harriet Beecher Stowe's magnum opus Uncle Tom's Cabin was partly based on Weld's text; the latter is regarded as second only to the former in its influence on the antislavery movement.  Weld remained dedicated to the abolitionist movement until slavery was ended by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865.  Learn mor...