The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was, as Brown explains here, \u201calmost certainly the most lethal piece of legislation to ever clear Congress.\u201d In reversing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowing slavery to expand into vast new western territories, the act deepened divisions between North and South and pushed the country toward civil war. This engaging history first examines the precarious balance struck between sectional differences at the nation\u2019s founding, then charts its dramatic demolition in the mid-19th century. Brown offers revealing studies of central figures in this historical period, from politicians Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, to authors and social commentators Harriet Beecher Stowe and Ralph Waldo Emerson, to abolitionist activists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Particularly rewarding are the author\u2019s analyses of Stowe\u2019s Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin and its indictment of \u201cthose various northern networks of complicity\u2014merchants and insurers, lawyers and creditors\u2014that [kept] the business of bondage strong, expansive, and legal.\u201d Emerson\u2019s complex attitudes about racial differences are also given sensitive and revealing consideration: \u201cUnable to grieve for a race he did not know, Emerson ultimately entered the public outcry against slavery when he recognized the institution as an infringement of white freedom.\u201d Another intriguing and persuasive feature of this book\u2019s commentary is its suggestion that the polarized conditions of antebellum America parallel those of the contemporary moment. Brown\u2019s ultimate conclusions are apt, compelling, and memorably expressed: \u201cIll served were the youth who came of age when a divided Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in whose wake came a great reckoning, the measured resonance of an original sin that had long shaken the country\u2014and stirs through it still.\u201d <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was, as Brown explains here, \u201calmost certainly the most lethal piece of legislation to ever clear Congress.\u201d In reversing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowing slavery to expand into vast new western territories, the act deepened divisions between North and South and pushed the country toward civil war. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}