By the time John Brown hung from the gallows for his crimes at Harper’s Ferry, Northern abolitionists had made him a "holy martyr" in their campaign against Southern slave owners. This Northern hatred for Southerners long predated their objections to slavery. They were convinced that New England, whose spokesmen had begun the American Revolution, should have been the leader of the new nation. Instead, they had been displaced by Southern "slavocrats" like Thomas Jefferson. This malevolent envy exacerbated the South’s greatest fear: a race war. Jefferson’s cry, "We are truly to be pitied," summed up their dread. For decades, extremists in both regions flung insults and threats, creating intractable enmities. By 1861, only a civil war that would kill a million men could save the Union.
Chapter 1. Slavery Comes to America
Chapter 2. Slavery’s Great Foe—and Unintended Friend
Chapter 3. The First Emancipation Proclamation
Chapter 4. One Head Turning into Thirteen
Chapter 5. The Forgotten Emancipator
Chapter 6. Thomas Jefferson’s Nightmare
Chapter 7. New England Preaches—and Almost Practices—Secession
Chapter 8. How Not to Abolish Slavery
Chapter 9. New England Rediscovers the Sacred Union
Chapter 10. Another Thomas Jefferson Urges Virginia to Abolish Slavery
Chapter 11. The Abolitionist Who Lost His Faith
Chapter 12. Abolitionism Divides and Conquers Itself
Chapter 13. Enter Old Man Eloquent
Chapter 15. The Trouble with Texas
Chapter 16. Slave Power Paranoia
Chapter 17. From Uncle Tom to John Brown
Chapter 18. The Real Uncle Tom and the Unknown South He Helped Create
Chapter 19. Free Soil for Free (White) Men
Chapter 20. The Whole World Is Watching
Chapter 21. An Ex-President Tries to Save the Union
Chapter 22. The Anguish of Robert E. Lee
Chapter 23. The End of Illusions
Chapter 24. The Third Emancipation Proclamation
Chapter 25. The Hunt After the Captain
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