The world of The Foursome is shaped by the institution of slavery and the dramatic social transformation brought about by the Civil War and Reconstruction. When Chang and Eng Bunker settled in North Carolina in 1839, slavery formed the foundation of the Southern economy and social hierarchy. Wealth, political influence, and social status were closely tied to land ownership and the labor of enslaved people. Although only a minority of Southern families enslaved large numbers of people, enslaving remained the defining marker of membership in the elite class. For ambitious individuals like Chang and Eng, purchasing land and enslaving laborers represented a pathway to acceptance in a society that had long regarded them as outsiders.

The brothers’ rise to prominence was unusual. The Naturalization Act of 1790 restricted citizenship to “free white persons,” effectively excluding most Asian immigrants from becoming citizens (“Nationality Act of 1790.” Immigration History). Because there was little legal precedent for people from Siam, Chang and Eng were nevertheless able to become naturalized in North Carolina. This unusual legal status allowed them to purchase land, vote, marry white women, and enslave other human beings. Kline uses this historical paradox to explore one of the novel’s central moral contradictions: Men who had themselves experienced exploitation and social exclusion willingly exploited others in order to secure status and stability.

As the novel progresses, national events increasingly shape the characters’ lives. Southern secession following Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 led to the Civil War (1861-1865), fought primarily over the expansion and preservation of slavery in the South. Like many wealthy Southern families, the Bunkers supported the Confederacy both financially and ideologically, investing in Confederate war bonds and contributing crows to the war effort. However, economic hardship, military defeat, and the abolition of slavery fundamentally changed their household and relationships.

The Reconstruction era that followed the war brought legal and social changes to the South. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime. In reality, this developed into an exploitative system of sharecropping for formerly enslaved people who remained in the South, while those who migrated to cities (mostly in the North) generally obtained low-paying service jobs. Kline reflects these historical changes through Grace’s return to the Bunker farm as a paid employee rather than as property. Her insistence on fair wages, secure housing, and education illustrates her understanding of the new yet highly limited opportunities created by emancipation. By tracing the Bunker family’s fortunes across slavery, war, and Reconstruction, The Foursome shows how large historical events reshape private lives while exposing the financial and social motivations for upholding exploitative systems.