The Politics of Community: Migration and Politics in Antebellum Ohio

Before the Civil War, millions of migrants streamed westward into and through the Midwest, challenging the stability of the fledgling communities throughout that region. The Politics of Community examines the impact of westward migration on political development and behaviour in Ohio, the most populous midwestern state during the nineteenth century. After 1815, the political participation of wave after wave of migrants posed continual challenges to the stability of the state's political system and especially to the conduct of politics within the communities. As a result, Ohio's politicians, jurists, and voters reassessed many of their basic political assumptions and altered their political institutions and rules to take account of the substantial number of transient voters. Professor Winkle explores the influence of migration on rules of suffrage, conduct of elections, patterns of voting, recruitment of political leaders, and local party organizations, as they all emerged before the Civil War.