By 1861, Horatio Applegate, a successful Yankee hoop skirt manufacturer with six attractive daughters, had carefully married five of them to good hoop skirt salesmen, but the sixth and youngest, Evalina, is more difficult to handle. She is passionately attached to her Aunt Dolly Bloomer, who is an ardent suffragette, the originator of the bloomer, and a believer in the emancipation of slaves. So Evalina works for her causes and even wears bloomers in defiance of her father.
Horatio decides that the best cure for Evalina is marriage, and he brings forth a handsome suitor from the southern hoop skirt district, Jefferson Lightfoot Calhoun of Kentucky. But Evalina suspects Jeff of having the same opinions as her father, so to test him she tricks him into freeing his own slave, Pompey.
This makes Evalina interested in Jeff, but it also gets him in to trouble with his own brother, Hamilton, the real business power of the southern district, who objects to Jeff giving away family property. Jeff almost gives Pompey back to Hamilton, thereby losing Evalina. She gets herself into trouble by championing a parade of Aunt Dolly’s Bloomer Girls and insists on going to jail with them. Everything is in a deplorable state until Jeff comes through by buying Pompey’s freedom, thus really winning Evalina’s love. The Governor of the state, an old suitor of Aunt Dolly’s, pardons the prisoners in the jail.
Shortly after this, Fort Sumter is fired upon and war looms above everything. But since Kentucky stays in the Union, Evalina and Jeff can be united and look forward to a happy life.
Principals
(8 female; 9 male)
Evalina Applegate - youngest daughter, heroine
Serena Applegate - mother
Daisy - maid, young comedienne
Married Daughters:
- Octavia
- Lydia
- Julia
- Delia
- Phoebe
Jefferson Lightfoot Calhoun ("Jeff") - fresh young hero
Pompey - slave to the Calhouns
Alexander - a slave
Augustus - a slave
Sons-in-law:
- Joshua Dingle
- Herman Brasher
- Ebenezer Mimms
- Wilfred Thrush
- Hiram Crump
Supporting
Horatio Applegate - father
Aunt Dolly Bloomer - leading suffragette and the creator of bloomers
Gus - coachman
Hamilton Calhoun - Jeff's older brother, business man
Sheriff Quimby and Three Deputies
Governor Newton - Aunt Dolly’s suitor
Governor’s Aide
Ensemble
Prudence, Paula, Hetty, and other Bloomer Girls
Characters in the Play Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Buyers, Guests, Children, Townspeople, Policemen