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Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party was the first party built on opposition to slavery to win on the national stage—but its victory was rooted in the earlier efforts of under-appreciated antislavery third parties. Liberty Power tells the story of how abolitionist activists built the most transformative third-party movement in American history and effectively reshaped political structures in the decades leading up to the Civil War.

As Corey M. Brooks explains, abolitionist trailblazers who organized first the Liberty Party and later the more moderate Free Soil Party confronted formidable opposition from a two-party system expressly constructed to suppress disputes over slavery. Identifying the Whigs and Democrats as the mainstays of the southern Slave Power’s national supremacy, savvy abolitionists insisted that only a party independent of slaveholder influence could wrest the federal government from its grip. A series of shrewd electoral, lobbying, and legislative tactics enabled these antislavery third parties to wield influence far beyond their numbers. In the process, these parties transformed the national political debate and laid the groundwork for the success of the Republican Party and the end of American slavery.

      Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians
      For the quarter-century before 1860 Stephen A. Douglas was a dominant
        figure on the American political scene, far outshadowing Abraham Lincoln.
        This first paperback printing of Robert Johannsen's authoritative biography
        features a new preface.
      "At once a work of enormous scholarship and of deep insight. Here,
        for the first time, is the full story of a great career, told with such
        skill that we can now understand why Abraham Lincoln found the 'Little
        Giant' the most formidable political rival he ever faced." -- David
        H. Donald, author of Lincoln and two-time winner of the Pulitzer
        Prize
      "Well-organized and marvelously detailed. . . . The book demonstrates
        the virtues of large-scale, straightforward narrative biography at its
        best. Its completeness and objectivity will make it the standard authority
        for many years to come." -- Richard N. Current, The New York Times
        Book Review
      "Superb. . . . Will doubtless stand as the definitive biography
        of Stephen A. Douglas for this generation." -- Hans L. Trefousse,
        The Journal of American History
      "An impressive work--impressive in scope, in research, and in maturity
        of understanding. . . . Johannsen has constructed a biography that is
        rich in detail and full of conviction." -- James Z. Rabun, The
        Journal of Southern History
      "Should take its place in the tradition of magisterial biographies
        . . . in which so much of the best writing on American history is to be
        found." -- Harry V. Jaffa, National Review
      "The research is amazingly exhaustive and the writing is unusually
        readable. . . . Outstanding biography of a quality not often matched."
        -- LeRoy H. Fischer, Manuscripta
      Supported by the Dickerson Fund of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign