Busy in the Cause
eBook - ePub

Busy in the Cause

Iowa, the Free-State Struggle in the West, and the Prelude to the Civil War

  1. 336 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Busy in the Cause

Iowa, the Free-State Struggle in the West, and the Prelude to the Civil War

About this book

Despite the immense body of literature about the American Civil War and its causes, the nation's western involvement in the approaching conflict often gets short shrift. Slavery was the catalyst for fiery rhetoric on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line and fiery conflicts on the western edges of the nation. Driven by questions regarding the place of slavery in westward expansion and by the increasing influence of evangelical Protestant faiths that viewed the institution as inherently sinful, political debates about slavery took on a radicalized, uncompromising fervor in states and territories west of the Mississippi River.

Busy in the Cause explores the role of the Midwest in shaping national politics concerning slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War. In 1856 Iowa aided parties of abolitionists desperate to reach Kansas Territory to vote against the expansion of slavery, and evangelical Iowans assisted runaway slaves through Underground Railroad routes in Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. Lowell J. Soike's detailed and entertaining narrative illuminates Iowa's role in the stirring western events that formed the prelude to the Civil War.

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Yes, you can access Busy in the Cause by Lowell J. Soike in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & American Civil War History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. List of Illustrations
  7. Preface
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. 1. Uncertainty Rising
  10. 2. The Morning Star
  11. 3. Prairie, Dust, and Wind
  12. 4. “Do Come and Help Us. Come On through Iowa”
  13. 5. Ho! For Kansas
  14. 6. Scramble to Freedom
  15. 7. Raising the Stakes
  16. 8. Heaven Sent
  17. 9. North and Back: Captors and Liberators
  18. Epilogue
  19. Appendix
  20. Notes
  21. Selected Bibliography
  22. Index
  23. About the Author