King provides a critical introduction to the lead-up to the Civil War. Seamlessly he weaves multiple and seemingly disparate threads, including early nineteenth-century Revivalism, the emergence of the Republic of Texas, the fugitive slave laws--and even an explosion aboard the U.S.S. Princeton in 1844--to explain how the opposition to slavery in America changed from producing speeches and pamphlets to embracing the reality that slavery could be eradicated only through arms.