The People's Martyr

Erik J. Chaput earned his doctorate in early American history from Syracuse University. He is a member of the History Department at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and is on the faculty in the School of Continuing Education at Providence College. He is the co-editor of The Select Letters of Thomas Wilson Dorr, which can be found on the Dorr Rebellion Project Site

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction . Beginnings 2. Jacksonian Dissident 3. The Abolitionists and the People 82 7 s Constitution 4. Peaceably If We Can, Forcibly If We Must 5. The Arsenal . An Abolitionist Plot 7. Grist for the Political Mill 8. The People 82 7 s Sovereignty in the Courtroom 9. The Legacy of the People 82 7 s Sovereignty Coda Notes Selected Bibliography Index

"Deeply researched and clearly written, Chaput's book is the fullest and most balanced account of Thomas W. Dorr and his extraordinary 1842 Rhode Island rebellion."-Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution "In writing the fullest biography yet of the fascinating Thomas Dorr, Chaput has also rewritten the history of the Dorr War, a singular and, as he shows anew, pivotal episode in the rise of American democratic politics. The connections between Chaput's story, national political maneuvering, and the emerging clash over slavery receive especially strong treatment, in a very strong book."-Sean Wilentz, Bancroft Prize winner for The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln "Chaput puts Thomas Dorr and his Rhode Island rebellion into a wide-ranging historical context of political democratization, westward expansion, and bitter conflict over slavery. His meticulous narrative unflinchingly exposes Dorr's ironic transformation from young idealist into party hack."-Daniel Walker Howe, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 "From a constitutional perspective the Dorr Rebellion is America's most significant democratic uprising. Chaput's new and meticulously researched analysis, linking the rebellion's doctrine of popular sovereignty to abolitionism and the crisis of Union, establishes better than any preceding work, the national impact of Rhode Island's campaign for equal rights."-Patrick T. Conley, Historian Laureate of Rhode Island and the author of The Rhode Island Constitution: A Reference Guide "Valuable for any student interested in the Jacksonian or antebellum eras. This book was a pleasure to read."-Jonathan Earle, author of Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824-1854 "Chaput brilliantly reveals how the concept of popular sovereignty as proposed by Thomas Dorr in Rhode Island actually further inflamed national sectionalism and exposed the weakness of the Second Party System that ultimately led to the Civil War."-Peter A. Wallner, author of Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union "A splendid, carefully researched account of Thomas Dorr's daring attempt to overthrow the government of Rhode Island."-Donald B. Cole, author of Vindicating Andrew Jackson: The 1828 Election and the Rise of the Two-Party System