In the troubled years leading up to the Civil War, newspapers in the
North and South presented the arguments for and against slavery, debated
the right to secede, and in general denounced opposing viewpoints with
imagination and vigor. At the same time, new technologies like railroads
and the telegraph lent the debates an immediacy that both enflamed
emotions and brought the slavery issue into every home.
Lorman A. Ratner and Dwight L. Teeter Jr. look at the power of America's
fast-growing media to influence perception and the course of events
prior to the Civil War. Drawing on newspaper accounts from across the
United States, the authors look at how the media covered--and the public
reacted to--major events like the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's raid
on Harper's Ferry, and the election of 1860. They find not only
North-South disputes about the institution of slavery but differing
visions of the republic itself--and which region was the true heir to
the legacy of the American Revolution.