Originally a University of Chicago doctoral dissertation, the first work of its kind, and the most thorough history of slavery in any state, of particular interest for its coverage of the work of Elijah P. Lovejoy, the Alton Riots, the evolution of the Free Soil Party, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and subsequent post-Civil war developments. This study of the pro - and anti-slavery agitation in the state from 1719 to 1864 is cited and recommended in: Bibliography of Comparative Literature - Baldensperger. At the time of book publication in 1904, N. Dwight Harris, Ph.D., was Professor of History in Lawrence University.