The institution of slavery shaped the economic, social, and political history of the United States. Tensions between supporters and opponents of slavery simmered for decades with ever-increasing intensity, before boiling over into a devastating four-year civil war. This book examines the series of compromises aimed at diffusing sectional conflict during the first half of the nineteenth century, the development of political strategies, the outbreak of armed hostilities, and the eventual secession of eleven Southern states in a bid to perpetuate the institution of slavery.