Dangerous ground : squatters, statesmen, and the antebellum rupture of American democracy /
John Suval.
- 1 online resource : illustrations (black and white, and colour).
- Oxford scholarship online .
- Oxford scholarship online. .
Also issued in print: 2022.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The squatter - defined by Noah Webster as 'one that settles on new land without a title' - had long been a fixture of America's frontier past. In the antebellum period, white squatters propelled the Jacksonian Democratic Party to dominance and the United States to the shores of the Pacific. In a bold reframing of the era's political history, John Suval explores how Squatter Democracy transformed the partisan landscape and the map of North America, hastening clashes that ultimately sundered the nation. With one eye on Washington and the other on flashpoints across the West, this book tracks squatters from the Mississippi Valley and cotton lands of Texas, to Oregon, Gold Rush-era California, and, finally, Bleeding Kansas. The sweeping narrative reveals how claiming western domains became stubbornly intertwined with partisan politics and fights over the extension of slavery.
Specialized.
9780197531457 No price
Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845.
Democratic Party (U.S.)--History--19th century.
Squatters--History--United States--19th century. Land settlement--History--United States--19th century. History. History of the Americas.
United States--Politics and government--1783-1865.