AN IMPERFECT
UNION
1815 — 1860
As America expanded across the West, the
future of slavery split churches, political
parties, and eventually the nation itself.
It took a Civil War and more than 625,
dead to decide the fundamental proposition
that all men are created equal.
❮❮ Mob attack
A contemporary engraving shows protestors and the
police breaking up an abolitionist meeting at Boston’s
Tremont Temple Baptist Church on December 3,
1860—a year after the execution of abolitionist John
Brown. Although Northerners were widely opposed to
the extension of slavery, many regarded those in favor
of outright abolition as troublesome fanatics.