1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910777958803321

Autore

Varon Elizabeth R. <1963->

Titolo

Disunion! [[electronic resource] ] : the coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859 / / Elizabeth R. Varon

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chapel Hill, : University of North Carolina Press, c2008

ISBN

0-8078-6607-5

1-4696-0620-8

0-8078-8718-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (470 p.)

Collana

The Littlefield history of the Civil War era

Disciplina

973.7/11

Soggetti

Sectionalism (United States) - History

Slavery - Political aspects - United States - History

Antislavery movements - United States - History

Rhetoric - Political aspects - United States - History

United States Politics and government 1783-1865

United States Politics and government 1783-1865 Sources

United States History Civil War, 1861-1865 Causes

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"A Caravan book"--T.p. verso.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 401-429) and index.

Nota di contenuto

The language of terrifying prophecy : disunion debates in the early republic -- We claim our rights : the advent of abolitionism -- Ruinous tendencies : the anti-abolition backlash -- The idea will become familiar : disunion in the era of mass party politics -- Oh for a man who is a man : debating slavery's expansion -- That is revolution! : the crisis of 1850 -- Beneath the iron heel : fugitive slaves and bleeding Kansas -- To consummate its boldest designs : the slave power confronts the republicans -- War to the knife : images of the coming fight -- Epilogue: The Rubicon is passed : the war and beyond.

Sommario/riassunto

In the decades of the early republic, Americans debating the fate of slavery often invoked the specter of disunion to frighten their opponents. As Elizabeth Varon shows, ""disunion"" connoted the dissolution of the republic--the failure of the founders' effort to establish a stable and lasting representative government. For many



Americans in both the North and the South, disunion was a nightmare, a cataclysm that would plunge the nation into the kind of fear and misery that seemed to pervade the rest of the world. For many others, however, disunion was seen as the main instrument by which they