Freedom and Slavery, and the Coveted Territories
- Title:
- Freedom and Slavery, and the Coveted Territories
- Alternate Title:
- Freedom and Slavery, and the Coveted Territories
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- John C. Fremont Campaign
- Date:
- 1856
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 2264.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_2264_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1800 - 1869
- Subject:
- Slavery/Race
U.S. Civil War
Unusual Projection
Unusual Graphics/Text
Politics & Government - Measurement:
- 13 x 20 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This map warning of the expansion of slavery into the west appears on the back cover of a biography issued by Horace Greeley in support of John Fremont in the 1856 Presidential election campaign. For more about the background and importance of the Fremont campaign map, see ID #2132, "Reynolds's Political Map of the United States Designed to Exhibit the Comparative Area of the Free and Slave States and the Territory open to Slavery or Freedom by the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise" (1856). The collection includes six examples of the Fremont campaign map, all dated 1856: ID #2132 (the Reynolds map poster), ID #1058 (handbill with map), ID #1059 (folding map in German), ID #2101 (pamphlet with map), ID #2199 (pamphlet with map), and ID #2264 (biography with map).
The map "startles the reader" (Schulten 129), in part through a number of techniques found in persuasive cartography. The grey tone of the "Coveted Territories" is very close to the black of the slave states, giving the impression that slavery has already (or nearly) arrived in the Territories. The text on the map describes the existing unfairness of congressional representation and postal expenditures, both favoring the slave states. Mexico (including Lower California), the Great Lakes, and the shorelines of the Pacific, Gulf and Atlantic are shaded in the same tone as the Territories, artificially enlarging the area "at risk." And the top of the map is tilted slightly away from the viewer, foreshortening the size of the Northern free States and enlarging those in the south.
Greeley was adamantly opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the western expansion of slavery. He editorialized against it in his paper, the New York Tribune, and helped to found the new Republican Party in 1954. This pamphlet consists of a previous biography, "Life of Col. Fremont," with new wraps. The cover is a different portrait of the candidate and a quote, pledging to govern "in such a way as to preserve both Liberty and the Union." The map appears on the back cover.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- John C. Fremont Campaign. 1856. Life of John Charles Fremont. New York: Greeley & McElrath.
- Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.