Butler

by Richard Strand

It’s the beginning of the Civil War, and lawyer Benjamin Franklin Butler has just been promoted to Union General at Fort Monroe, a Union hold-out in the state of Virginia. He soon finds himself face to face with Shepard Mallory, an escaped slave seeking asylum at the fort for himself and other slaves. Sworn to uphold the law, Butler prepares to return the slaves, until Mallory forces him to question whether what is legal is actually right. Inspired by real events and relevant to the Black Lives Matter movement of today, Butler is part comedy, part historical drama, and according to The New York Times, simply “splendid.”