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This study examines how the political anti-slavery challenge to the North informed American literature of the 1850s. As the works of Stowe, Whittier, Willis, and Whitman reveal, the political discourse and literature were branches of the same project: to expose compromise with slavery as a threat to each individual Northerner and to the people as an actor in history.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: American Literature and the Political Anti-Slavery Call for Northern Agency
Section 1: The Slave Power and the Responsibilities of the North
Chapter 2: Stowe's Dred and the Narrative Logic of Slavery's Extension
Chapter 3: Sovereignty and the Politics of Analogy in Whittier's "The Panorama"
Section 2: History and the Weakness of the North
Chapter 4: Self-Abasement and Republican Insecurity: Willis's Paul Fane in Its Political Context
Chapter 5: Ophelia and the Economy of Passion in Uncle Tom's Cabin
Section 3: Republicanism and the Power of the North
Chapter 6: "Our Nation's Hope is She": The Cult of Jessie Fremont in the Republican Campaign Poetry of 1856
Chapter 7: "Fall Behind Me, States!": Re-examining the Politics of Union in Leaves of Grass
About the author
David and Carrie Grant are BAFTA award-winning broadcasters, vocal coaches, leadership coaches and campaigners. Their TV and music career has spanned over 35 years and they have been awarded a MOBO award and a BASCA for their lifetime services to the music industry.
