Corey M. Brooks is assistant professor of history at York College of Pennsylvania. He is coeditor of Their Patriotic Duty: The Civil War Letters of the Evans Family of Brown County, Ohio. He resides in Baltimore.

• Introduction Chapter OnePolitical Abolition and the Slave Power Argument, 1835–1840Interlude One “Bowing Down to the Slave Power”: Northern Whigs, Slavery, and the Speakership, 1839Chapter TwoAgitating the Congress: Abolitionist Lobbying and Antislavery Alliances, 1836–1844Interlude Two“A Temporary ‘Third Party’”: Antislavery Whig Dissidents in the 1841 Speakership ContestChapter ThreeBuilding Third-Party Electoral Power, 1841–1846Chapter FourAntislavery Upheaval in the Capitol: The Wilmot Proviso Debates and the Widening Sectional Divide, 1846–1848Interlude Three “Let the Lines Be Drawn”: Conscience Whig Insurgency and the 1847 Speakership ElectionChapter FiveLiberty Men and the Creation of an Anti–Slave Power Coalition, 1846–1849Interlude Four “Glorious Confusion in the Ranks”: The Free Soil Balance of Power, 1849Chapter SixFree Soil Politics and the Twilight of the Second Party System, 1849–1853Chapter SevenThe Nebraska Outrage and the Advent of the Republican Party, 1853–1855Interlude Five“A New Era in Our History”: The Longest Speakership Contest in American History and the First Republican National Victory, 1855–1856ConclusionAcknowledgments Abbreviations NotesIndex

“Through intensive research, careful dissection of events, and imaginative re-creation of interactions among abolitionists, Brooks has wrought something almost entirely new and completely convincing: his book is a powerful retelling of the story of how antislavery politics triumphed in the United States and, unlike almost every other narrative, places the abolitionists in the center of political events. For historians of antebellum America, this is the single most important book to read in 2016.”

Corey M. Brooks is assistant professor of history at York College of Pennsylvania. He is coeditor of Their Patriotic Duty: The Civil War Letters of the Evans Family of Brown County, Ohio. He resides in Baltimore.

• Introduction Chapter OnePolitical Abolition and the Slave Power Argument, 1835–1840Interlude One “Bowing Down to the Slave Power”: Northern Whigs, Slavery, and the Speakership, 1839Chapter TwoAgitating the Congress: Abolitionist Lobbying and Antislavery Alliances, 1836–1844Interlude Two“A Temporary ‘Third Party’”: Antislavery Whig Dissidents in the 1841 Speakership ContestChapter ThreeBuilding Third-Party Electoral Power, 1841–1846Chapter FourAntislavery Upheaval in the Capitol: The Wilmot Proviso Debates and the Widening Sectional Divide, 1846–1848Interlude Three “Let the Lines Be Drawn”: Conscience Whig Insurgency and the 1847 Speakership ElectionChapter FiveLiberty Men and the Creation of an Anti–Slave Power Coalition, 1846–1849Interlude Four “Glorious Confusion in the Ranks”: The Free Soil Balance of Power, 1849Chapter SixFree Soil Politics and the Twilight of the Second Party System, 1849–1853Chapter SevenThe Nebraska Outrage and the Advent of the Republican Party, 1853–1855Interlude Five“A New Era in Our History”: The Longest Speakership Contest in American History and the First Republican National Victory, 1855–1856ConclusionAcknowledgments Abbreviations NotesIndex

“Through intensive research, careful dissection of events, and imaginative re-creation of interactions among abolitionists, Brooks has wrought something almost entirely new and completely convincing: his book is a powerful retelling of the story of how antislavery politics triumphed in the United States and, unlike almost every other narrative, places the abolitionists in the center of political events. For historians of antebellum America, this is the single most important book to read in 2016.”

Corey M. Brooks is assistant professor of history at York College of Pennsylvania. He is coeditor of Their Patriotic Duty: The Civil War Letters of the Evans Family of Brown County, Ohio. He resides in Baltimore.

• Introduction Chapter OnePolitical Abolition and the Slave Power Argument, 1835–1840Interlude One “Bowing Down to the Slave Power”: Northern Whigs, Slavery, and the Speakership, 1839Chapter TwoAgitating the Congress: Abolitionist Lobbying and Antislavery Alliances, 1836–1844Interlude Two“A Temporary ‘Third Party’”: Antislavery Whig Dissidents in the 1841 Speakership ContestChapter ThreeBuilding Third-Party Electoral Power, 1841–1846Chapter FourAntislavery Upheaval in the Capitol: The Wilmot Proviso Debates and the Widening Sectional Divide, 1846–1848Interlude Three “Let the Lines Be Drawn”: Conscience Whig Insurgency and the 1847 Speakership ElectionChapter FiveLiberty Men and the Creation of an Anti–Slave Power Coalition, 1846–1849Interlude Four “Glorious Confusion in the Ranks”: The Free Soil Balance of Power, 1849Chapter SixFree Soil Politics and the Twilight of the Second Party System, 1849–1853Chapter SevenThe Nebraska Outrage and the Advent of the Republican Party, 1853–1855Interlude Five“A New Era in Our History”: The Longest Speakership Contest in American History and the First Republican National Victory, 1855–1856ConclusionAcknowledgments Abbreviations NotesIndex

“Through intensive research, careful dissection of events, and imaginative re-creation of interactions among abolitionists, Brooks has wrought something almost entirely new and completely convincing: his book is a powerful retelling of the story of how antislavery politics triumphed in the United States and, unlike almost every other narrative, places the abolitionists in the center of political events. For historians of antebellum America, this is the single most important book to read in 2016.”