Breaking America
The Radical Abolitionists of Quincy, Illinois
Will be published approx. on 17. November 2026
Book
Hardback
260 pages
978-0-8262-2365-4 (ISBN)
Description
In this engaging new work, Terrell Dempsey and Patrick Hotle draw from newly discovered and underutilized primary sources to craft a detailed narrative history of the rise of a group of radical abolitionists in Quincy, Illinois, and the outsized, if mostly overlooked, influence they had on the dissolution of the Union.
The story begins with the 1830 arrival in Marion County, Missouri, of Dr. David Nelson, a Presbyterian minister and supporter of the American Colonization Society. After hearing a speech by Theodore B. Weld, Nelson was converted to the abolitionist cause and went on to recruit Elijah Lovejoy into the region's nascent anti-slavery movement. Nelson's activities resulted in the creation of an active anti-abolitionist organization in Northeast Missouri that ended up running him out of the state and across the river to Quincy, Illinois, at the same time Lovejoy sought shelter in Alton, Illinois.
In Quincy, Nelson and a group of like-minded moderate anti-slavery activists opened a manual labor school called the Mission Institute. Following the murder of Lovejoy by a pro-slavery mob, a small band of abolitionists at the Mission Institute became radicalized and decided to aid enslaved people in their quest for freedom. After three of these abolitionists were captured in Missouri and sentenced to twelve years in prison, others at the Mission Institute published a call for the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society to organize an underground railroad in Illinois. The Society officially committed to assisting enslaved people to escape slavery in May of 1842, which triggered a hostile reaction from enslavers in Missouri who went on to organize patrols, seek stricter state laws, and attempt to sabotage the underground railroad in neighboring Illinois.
In Breaking America, Dempsey and Hotle demonstrate the impact of the Quincy abolitionists on the later Dred Scott cases. The authors trace a sequence of revivals, public meetings, daring escapes, over-reactions, judicial decisions, and violence, providing a roadmap for how Missouri judicial opinion changed from "once free, always free" to "once a slave, always a slave" under Missouri Law. Breaking America is an important new addition to the history of abolitionism, the Dred Scott decision, and the eventual dissolution of the Union.
The story begins with the 1830 arrival in Marion County, Missouri, of Dr. David Nelson, a Presbyterian minister and supporter of the American Colonization Society. After hearing a speech by Theodore B. Weld, Nelson was converted to the abolitionist cause and went on to recruit Elijah Lovejoy into the region's nascent anti-slavery movement. Nelson's activities resulted in the creation of an active anti-abolitionist organization in Northeast Missouri that ended up running him out of the state and across the river to Quincy, Illinois, at the same time Lovejoy sought shelter in Alton, Illinois.
In Quincy, Nelson and a group of like-minded moderate anti-slavery activists opened a manual labor school called the Mission Institute. Following the murder of Lovejoy by a pro-slavery mob, a small band of abolitionists at the Mission Institute became radicalized and decided to aid enslaved people in their quest for freedom. After three of these abolitionists were captured in Missouri and sentenced to twelve years in prison, others at the Mission Institute published a call for the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society to organize an underground railroad in Illinois. The Society officially committed to assisting enslaved people to escape slavery in May of 1842, which triggered a hostile reaction from enslavers in Missouri who went on to organize patrols, seek stricter state laws, and attempt to sabotage the underground railroad in neighboring Illinois.
In Breaking America, Dempsey and Hotle demonstrate the impact of the Quincy abolitionists on the later Dred Scott cases. The authors trace a sequence of revivals, public meetings, daring escapes, over-reactions, judicial decisions, and violence, providing a roadmap for how Missouri judicial opinion changed from "once free, always free" to "once a slave, always a slave" under Missouri Law. Breaking America is an important new addition to the history of abolitionism, the Dred Scott decision, and the eventual dissolution of the Union.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Missouri
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8262-2365-4 (9780826223654)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Terrell Dempsey is an independent scholar and attorney and partner with the firm Dempsey, Dempsey, and Moellring, in Hannibal, Missouri. He received his B.A. from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1976, and his J.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1987. He is the author of Searching for Jim, Slavery in Sam Clemens's World (University of Missouri Press, 2003).
Patrick Hotle is Professor Emeritus of History at Culver-Stockton College. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Iowa, his Master of Philosophy in international relations, and his PhD in history from Cambridge University in England. Hotle has received the Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the President's Award for Exemplary Service. He has authored books on the Renaissance, Egypt and the Middle East, and Russia.
Patrick Hotle is Professor Emeritus of History at Culver-Stockton College. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Iowa, his Master of Philosophy in international relations, and his PhD in history from Cambridge University in England. Hotle has received the Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the President's Award for Exemplary Service. He has authored books on the Renaissance, Egypt and the Middle East, and Russia.
Content
Table of Contents
Preface 3
Introduction 5
Chapter 1: Statehood 12
Chapter 2: Slavery in Missouri: A "Miserable Portion of the Human Race 27
Chapter 3: A Sister State on the East Bank of the Mississippi 37
Chapter 4: David Nelson Comes to Missouri 46
Chapter 5: Converting Elijah Lovejoy, The Road to Abolition 64
Chapter 6: Trouble Comes to Marion County 77
Chapter 7: Sanctuary in Quincy 97
Chapter 8: New Beginnings and Trouble 116
Chapter 9: The Resistance to Anti-Slavery Organizes 135
Chapter 10: A Stunned Movement Enters a Quiet Time 156
Chapter 11: Building a New World 178
Chapter 12: Into Missouri - A Fool's Errand 198
Chapter 13: Suffering for a Just Cause 217
Chapter 14: Birth of an Underground Railroad: A Concert of Prayer 231
Chapter 15: The Backlash Intensifies 245
Chapter 16: A Tumultuous Time 260
Chapter 17: Going Underground 288
Chapter 18: Freeing Thompson, Work, and Burr 303
Chapter 19: Afterward 315
Preface 3
Introduction 5
Chapter 1: Statehood 12
Chapter 2: Slavery in Missouri: A "Miserable Portion of the Human Race 27
Chapter 3: A Sister State on the East Bank of the Mississippi 37
Chapter 4: David Nelson Comes to Missouri 46
Chapter 5: Converting Elijah Lovejoy, The Road to Abolition 64
Chapter 6: Trouble Comes to Marion County 77
Chapter 7: Sanctuary in Quincy 97
Chapter 8: New Beginnings and Trouble 116
Chapter 9: The Resistance to Anti-Slavery Organizes 135
Chapter 10: A Stunned Movement Enters a Quiet Time 156
Chapter 11: Building a New World 178
Chapter 12: Into Missouri - A Fool's Errand 198
Chapter 13: Suffering for a Just Cause 217
Chapter 14: Birth of an Underground Railroad: A Concert of Prayer 231
Chapter 15: The Backlash Intensifies 245
Chapter 16: A Tumultuous Time 260
Chapter 17: Going Underground 288
Chapter 18: Freeing Thompson, Work, and Burr 303
Chapter 19: Afterward 315