Editing Friendly Persuasion (1956 film) (section)

==Plot==
In [[Jennings County, Indiana]], in 1862, Jess Birdwell is a farmer and patriarch of the Birdwell family whose Quaker religion conflicts with his love for the worldly enjoyments of music and horse racing. Jess's wife Eliza, a Quaker minister, is deeply religious and steadfast in her refusal to engage in violence. Jess's daughter Mattie wants to remain a Quaker but has fallen in love with [[cavalry]] officer Gard Jordan, a love that is against her mother's wishes. Jess's elder son Josh is torn between his hatred of violence and a conviction that to protect his family he must join the home guard and fight the invaders. The family's youngest member is "Little" Jess, who is forever at war with his mother's pet [[goose]]. Enoch, a [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|runaway slave]], is a laborer on their farm; his children are still enslaved in the South.

The story begins as a tale of Quakers trying to maintain their faith as they go to meeting on First Day (Sunday); contrasted with the Birdwells' neighbor Sam Jordan and other members of the nearby Methodist Church. The mood shifts when the meeting is interrupted by a Union officer who asks how the Quaker men can stand by when their houses will be looted and their families terrorized by approaching [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] troops. When confronted with the question of his being afraid to fight, Josh Birdwell responds that it might be the case. His honesty provokes the wrath of Purdy, a Quaker elder who condemns people who do not believe as he does.

Meanwhile, the Quakers try to maintain their ways, despite the temptations of amusements at a county fair, and a new organ (which Jess buys over Eliza's opposition). On a business trip, Jess acquires a new horse from the widow Hudspeth, and defeats Sam in their weekly horse race.  One day, Jess is cultivating his fields and notices a cloud of smoke on the horizon produced by the burning of buildings. Josh arrives and tells them the neighboring community has been reduced to ash and corpses. Josh believes that he must fight, a conviction that threatens to destroy the family. Eliza tells him that by turning his back on their religion he is turning his back on her, but Jess sees things a different way. Josh finds himself on the front line of the battle to stop the advance of the raiders, and only fires his gun when the man next to him is wounded. Meanwhile, Jess is reluctant to fight, only picking up a rifle and riding off towards the fighting when the family horse gallops back to the farm riderless.

When Confederates arrive at the farm, with only Eliza and the younger children present, the family and the farm are saved when Eliza greets them on the porch and welcomes them to take all the food and animals they want and feeds them in their kitchen.  As Jess finds Sam Jordan dying he is bushwhacked by a "Reb". He plays possum and when the Confederate soldier approaches he struggles with him and takes away his gun, but ultimately lets him go free and unhurt. He then finds Josh injured and brings him home.