The fiery trial: Abraham Lincoln and American slavery

"I am naturally anti-slavery" : young Abraham Lincoln and slavery

"Always a whig" : slavery, the law, and the second party system

"The monstrous injustice" : becoming a republican

"A house divided" : slavery and race in the late 1850s

"The only substantial difference":

Secession and Civil War

"I must have Kentucky" : the border strategy

"Forever free" : the coming of emancipation

"A new birth of freedom" : securing emancipation

"A fitting, and necessary conclusion" : abolition, reelection, and the challenge of reconstruction.