Kornblith focuses on slavery as a moral and political issue that threatened the unity and stability of the United States from the nation's inception. The author traces the story of slavery in America's history from 1776 through the 1821 Missouri Compromise, which allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Key themes include the general acceptance of slavery in early America, how decisions made at the founding affected the future and course of slavery in our nation, and whether the Civil War was the inevitable result of those decisions.

Slavery and Sectional Strife in the Early American Republic, 1776-1821 focuses on slavery as a moral and political issue that threatened the unity and stability of the United States from the nation's inception. In tracing the story of slavery in America's history from 1776 through the Missouri Compromise, Gary Kornblith highlights a number of important themes: the general acceptance of slavery in colonial America, the reevaluation of human bondage during the American Revolution, how decisions made by the Founding Fathers shaped the future of slavery in the new United States, and whether the...