Introduction: freedom and democracy in "the people's contest": a complicated role for Congress in a complicated war / Paul Finkelman
A martyr, a speaker, and impending crisis: a prologue to the election of 1860 / Jonathan Earle
"Shatter this accursed union": the fire-eaters in Congress in 1860 / Eric Walther
"These Zouaves will never support us": cowardice, Congress and the First Battle of Bull Run / Lesley J. Gordon
The summer of '62: Congress, slavery, and a revolution in Federal law / Paul Finkelman
The radicals' war: how the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War tried to shape the course of the Civil War / Fergus M. Bordewich
We are coming, Father Abraham, but how will you pay for us? / Jenny Bourne
Why we fight: German American revolutionists confront slavery and secession / Mischa Honeck
Make mine an abolition war: George Luther Stearns, Frederick Douglass, and the Black soldier / L. Diane Barnes
Military emancipation before the Emancipation Proclamation: overcoming structural obstacles / Chandra Manning
Negotiating Black manhood citizenship through Civil War volunteerism and patriotism: Cincinnati's Black Brigade / Nikki M. Taylor.