Fighting Slavery in Chicago: Abolitionists, the Law of Slavery and Lincoln

Charles Volney Dyer came to Chicago in 1835 as physician to the garrison at Fort Dearborn. Outraged at the assassination of abolitionist editor, Elijah Lovejoy, in Alton, Illinois, he rallied Chicgoans to form the Chicago Chapter of the Anti-Slavery Society. With them, he operated the Illinois Station of the Underground Railroad, freeing over 1000 slaves. Tracing Dyer's activities from 1835-1865, Campbell sweeps in the many players and steps in the fight against slavery. Dyer established newspapers, including "National Era" which first published "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and "Western Citizen" which became the "FreeWest" and later the "Chicago Tribune." He founded anti-slavery political parties--the Liberty Party, the Free Soil Party and the Illinois Republican Party, which hosted the first Republican Convention,at which Dyer helped secure the nomination for Lincoln in 1860 in Chicago. Lincoln is rightfully immortalized as the Great Emancipator and this book clearly demonstrates that Chicago abolitionists played a significant role in pushing slavery down the road to its ultimate extinction.