AND UNION NO MORE

In Haynes’ 1850s-set historical novel, three men—two abolitionists and a pro-slavery Southerner—become embroiled in a murderous conspiracy.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 makes a massive swath of territory to the west of Iowa and Missouri open to slavery, as determined by popular vote. As a result, Northerners and Southerners alike rush to settle there in a bid to tip the electoral scale, a situation that quickly becomes violent: “Kansas was a tinderbox. All awaited the spark that would ignite a blaze.” Monty Tolliver, a former Whig congressman in Ohio and an ardent abolitionist, decides to move his family to Kansas to do his part and discovers an all-out war being waged there by pro-slavery agitators. He joins the local militia and becomes a key player in the effort to organize a constitutional convention that will establish Kansas as a free state. He’s aided by Robert Geddis, who comes to Kansas from Rhode Island to work for the Herald of Freedom newspaper. Violence is committed by both sides of the conflict, a grim scenario rigorously depicted by the author. A series of grisly murders is undertaken by devoted abolitionists, followed by equally grotesque killings by pro-slavers in retaliation—some of which are pinned on Billy Rutledge, a young man from Mississippi. But Geddis knows Billy, and despite Billy’s support of slavery, he considers him incapable of murder. This complex narrative at times becomes convoluted—there are simply too many plot twists and subplots, and they become a tedious distraction. However, the author’s portrayal of this chapter in the history of the nation is impressively astute, and he brings the clash of ideologies that sparked it to electrifying life. The novel is unflinchingly honest and evenhanded—while slavery was a vile institution, Haynes acknowledges that people who opposed it were fully capable of gross moral failings of their own. Ultimately, this is a worthwhile work of historical drama, simultaneously edifying and entertaining.

A historically authentic and dramatically engrossing work.