![]() Kate Nelligan plays Elizabeth Mink, Rachael Crawford is Mary, Peter Outerbridge is Johnson, and Winston Rekert is Sherman Clay, the plantation owner who buys Mary. The tale, filmed in Ontario, was written by Brian Bird and John Wierick from a story developed by Bryon White, a Canadian editor and producer. But lack of information did not stop Petrie and Gossett from creating the story of what might have happened. Executive consultant Louis Gossett Jr., who portrays Mink, thinks she returned to Canada later in life, but said he doesn't know whether James Mink was still alive. History apparently does not record what the Minks did or whether James Mink ever saw his daughter again. "What we don't know," said Petrie, "is whether her family went down to the United States to find her in real life." In "Captive Heart" they do. When the Minks finally heard from Mary after the marriage, she wrote that she was now a slave and pleaded for help. But he was not the gentleman Mink thought he was. "We know that she was married to a man named William Johnson." Johnson sold Arabian horses to prosperous Canadians. He had a hotel and livery stable in Toronto his brother George had a livery company in London, Ontario. He was a powerful man, a proud man, and he was highly courted by the politicians. "James Mink actually put an ad in the Toronto Globe & Mail for a $10,000 dowry, and he had lots of people to interview. Canada abolished slavery in the 1700s, and they did not frown on mixed marriages. And he also felt she should marry a white man because she would have an easier life. "And he decided he wanted Mary to a have a good marriage. "At that time, 1852, all the fathers were arranging marriages," said "Captive Heart's" executive producer, Dorothea G. At 17, Mary was a young woman of privilege who was hoping to continue her education and become a teacher. He and Elizabeth, his Irish-born wife, adored their daughter, Mary. Local politicians were urging him to run for office. He had established thriving businesses in Toronto by 1852. ![]() Mink, son of an ex-slave who went to Canada in the early 1800s, was doing very well. ![]() From that kernel of tragic truth comes the otherwise fictionalized "Captive Heart: The James Mink Story" (Sunday at 9 on CBS). ![]() He makes a disastrous error: He chooses a cruel man who sells her into slavery in the American South. A well-to-do Canadian sets out to find a husband for his beloved only child. ![]()
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