These plays show a fascinating side of the American melodramatic imagination as it was nurtured in the social world of the nineteenth century, and later grew to be a dominant genre in the theatre, film, and television of today. Includes: The Poor of New York by Dion Boucicault, Uncle Tom's Cabin by George Aiken/Harriet Beecher Stowe, Under the Gaslight by Augustin Daly, The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco.