This course will examine how the regional existence of slavery widened the social and political divide in America and eventually led to a civil war. It will consider the debate over slavery's expansion, popular sovereignty, abolitionism, colonization, secession, and the limits of presidential authority. It will focus on the political thought and practice of Abraham Lincoln as he struggled to preserve the union of the American states from the threat of slavery's expansion and, ultimately, a civil war. To place Lincoln's words and deeds in historical context, the course will also consider the writings of important figures like U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas and abolitionist orator/journalist Frederick Douglass.