xxxvi, 195 p. ; 24 cm, Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-177) and index, Chronology of American slavery and abolition -- From common practice to peculiar institution : slavery and abolitionism to 1816 -- The emergence of a national movement : 1816 to 1840 -- Growing pains of the abolition movement : 1840 to 1848 -- Slavery, abolition, and the West : 1848 to 1856 -- Toward the Civil War : 1856 to 1865 -- Biographical profiles of key abolitionists