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:
- 2015-08-25
- ID Number:
- 1058.03
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_1058_03.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1800 - 1869
- Subject:
- Deception/Distortion
Unusual Projection
U.S. Civil War
Slavery/Race - Measurement:
- 14 x 21 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This map warning of the expansion of slavery into the west appears on a handbill 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 1856 campaign was dominated by the issue of slavery, and in particular the question of whether or not to repeal the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed new states the option to permit slavery. The Democratic candidate, James Buchanan, supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act. John C. Fremont, candidate of the new Republican party, opposed the Act, and maps like this one were an important feature of his campaign literature throughout (Schulten 2012, 129-130).
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.
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:
- Young Men's Fremont and Dayton Central Union of the City of New York. 1856. The New "Democratic" Doctrine.
- 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.