CLINTON’S DITCH THE STORY OF THE BUILDING OF THE ERIE CANAL

A Brief Description of the Play

In 1817, DeWitt Clinton, the Governor of New York, is challenged to construct the Eire Canal which would be the longest canal in the world. Nine thousand ditch diggers, many of them immigrants, endure harsh conditions trying to dig with their hands and shovels, through mountains, swamps, rivers, during their 8 years of building the famous Erie Canal. In the end they did prevail in building a national monument but with little, or any, recognition of their role in constructing the Erie Canal.

As the play is developed the laborers fight one battle after another against the resistance of nature. Each scene in the play is a tremendous challenge for the diggers. There are battles against the local town’s people of Up State New York who hate immigrants. They struggle in the freezing winter and the force of nature which kills the spirit.The heat of the summer brings sickness and death.

DeWitt Clinton is the John the Baptist of the New York Frontier, crying in the wilderness to complete his big ditch and the land that God has given America. He becomes the father of the Erie Canal. The political scenes are much like the political battles of modern America. But he endures and prevails against the evils of his time. The message is about how to face the evils of the 21st century and developing a vision for a better world for all human beings.