Includes bibliographical references (page 198) and index.

One country, two worlds. North and South compared -- Abolitionists speak out -- The slave system -- Ex-slaves remember -- Expanding boundaries, rising tensions. Westward migration -- The Mexican War -- The Fugitive Slave Law -- Popular sovereignty -- The Dred Scott decision -- The rail splitter and the splitting country. The Lincoln-Douglas debates -- Harpers Ferry -- Election 1860 -- Secession -- Increasing tensions -- War -- Filling the ranks. A glorious adventure-- African-American soldiers -- The Battle of Bull Run -- Conscription -- Abuse of Black troops -- Camp life -- The battlefield -- Moving toward revolution. The Crittenden-Johnson Resolutions -- Slavery must die -- The Battle of Antietam -- The Emancipation Proclamation -- Prejudice overturned -- The Battle of Gettysburg -- Sherman's March to the sea -- This sad war is a bad thing. Letters home -- Soldiers' families struggle -- Women join the workforce -- The volunteer effort -- Inflation -- The peculiar institution falls apart -- Lost interest in the "cause" -- Assassination of Lincoln -- Images of war. -- A fool's errand. Planning for reconstruction -- Radical reconstruction -- The 13th Amendment -- The Black does -- Ex-slaves build new lives -- African Americans enter politics -- Black landowners -- The limits of reconstruction -- Sharecropping -- A reign of terror -- Reconstruction ends.

Chronicles the American Civil War through wartime documents, illustrations, and photos.