In the first episode of North and South, we follow a family who moves from southern England to northern England. The story takes place during the Victorian era.
It is also during this period that major changes and developments took place in nearly all areas. Advances were made in medical and technological – Wee see how they travel with the train to the north - areas of life which led to changes in population and growth. It was during this period that the Industrial Revolution flourished. At the same time, the female oppression slowly stopped and women began to have roles outside the household. It was also in this period that there were doubts about mans predicted path on earth.

In the episode, we clearly see how life in the crowded city is. The sky is always gray, not because of the weather, but because of smoke from the factories. The massive overpopulation was the rea-son people moved from the country to the cities where they could find work. The consequence was, however, poor conditions and lack of freedom. At the time, there were no unions to support the workers and help them get their rights. However, it can be seen in the episode, how the work-ers gather and hold meetings. This is a sign of constructing the first trade unions. Unions that created the basis for the rights we know today. Every day the workers live suppressed from the factory owners.
Some of these things are seen in the first episode. Here we get familiar with a local mill-owner named Mr. Thornton. He is a typical businessman. He is what today is known as a super capitalist. The first time we meet Mr. Thornton, we see him brutally beat up one of his workers, for smoking inside the cotton-mill. Though he beat his worker up, we later learn that he only prevented a poss-ible burn down of the mill. Although Mr. Thornton can be characterized as brutal and mean, he seems very intelligent and intellectual. This can be verified by his interest in Platoon. His interest leads him to attend a class, which is led by Mr. Hale. Thornton also has a very good eye on Mr. Hale's daughter, whom he saw when he beat up one of his workers. Hales daughter saw the beat-ing and was outraged with his actions. Thornton however, slowly beings to fall in love with her
The story is as known about a family from the South to the North, where they try to adapt in the industrial town, Milton. The family’s young daughter, Margaret Hale, whom is a strong and inde-pendent woman, struggles hard to adapt the city. She is outraged by the treatment of the workers and their living conditions, in contrast to Mr. Thornton, who is the oppressor of the workers. As the story goes on, she confronts Thornton on his suppressing of his workers her confrontation contains big courage and strength, since it was not typical for women in that period to confront men, especially men as Mr. Thornton.
Margaret is not the typical girl from the big city. She is strong and independent and is very con-cerned about other people and their rights. Her character is not distinctive for the age. But it was in the Victorian period, that the women question was discussed. Women moved from the tradi-tional house holding to get roles outside the house. Where they before either were Madonna’s or whores, the industrial revolution opened up opportunities to women. Slowly women got educated and some of them became very influential on today’s literature.

In many ways, both characters reflect the Victorian period in contrast to each other, Mr. Thornton as the wealthy factory owner who is interested in intellectual things, and Margaret as the wealthy southern girl, who concerns for the workers’ rights.

As mentioned before, it was also in the Victorian period, that there were doubts about mans pre-dicted path to earth. This was off course heavily discussed among the people. Darwin’s theory said that mans ancestors were apes. This off course outraged people, and many hated Darwin. Espe-cially in the lower-classes where education was non-existent, the strong belief in God and Chris-tianity overcame the belief in Darwin’s theory. - This is still seen today, with people who come from areas where education is something very few get the belief in God and Adam and Eve still overcomes Darwin’s Theory. But there were people who believed in Darwin. These where known as non-conformists. They were typical from the upper classes, and had the money and power to belief different without getting isolated from the society.
In the story we get familiar with the issue, as we learn that the Hale family has moved from the south due to, Mr. Hale beliefs in something else.