Chapter 2: Harlan of Kentucky
p. 25. What detail regarding the age of Malvina Shanklin inspires some confusion about the mores of that time, in today’s reader?
p. 26. What commonality do you see between John Marshall Harlan and yourself, if any?
p. 27. What was one the cultural meanings of the Ohio River before the Civil War?
p. 28. What can we say about the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850?
p. 29. What happened when a steamer captain on his way from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, brought Douglas and Remond into the dining room?
p. 30. Who was Robert Harlan?
p. 31. What did a Louisville Daily Journal advertisement say?
p. 32. How old was Mallie when John Harlan proposed?
p. 33. Please explain, Mallie’s uncle “would rather have seen me in my grave than have me marry a Southern man and go to live in the South.”
p. 34-36. What detail from Harlan’s teenage years impressed you?
p.36-37. What represented the constitutional “radical error” the author mentions?
p.38. What does it mean that “in the Harlan household, slavery relied on the rule of law?”
p.39-40. What represented the “Know Nothings?”
p.40-41. What is remarkable about John Harlan’s induction (secret oath)?
p. 42. The 20-30 miles distance between towns was viewed as grueling for the young Harlan. Why?
p. 43.What caused “Bloody Monday”?
p.44. What can be said about the Know Nothing strategy during the 1855 elections?
p.45. What was Mallie’s wedding present, given to her at the Harlan homestead?