The Great Turkey Walk

The Great Turkey Walk is set in the American West in 1860. It begins on the border between Missouri and the Kansas Territory, and as the action continues, the protagonist, Simon, travels toward Denver. Two aspects of the history of this area are especially relevant to the story’s plot.

In 1860, the US was divided by the institution of slavery. The practice of enslavement was still legal in the American South and in parts of the West, but it was illegal in other parts of the country. Heated political battles were fought between those who believed in slavery and those who believed in abolition.

One of these battles resulted in the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, a law that allowed Western settlers to vote on whether to allow slavery in their newly organized territories. Not everyone agreed with this new law, and conflicts between abolitionists and pro-slavery forces erupted into violence again and again. These violent confrontations earned Kansas the nickname “Bleeding Kansas.” Another controversial law of this era was the Fugitive Slave Act. This law made it illegal to help people fleeing from enslavement and required people to turn in these freedom seekers—even if they successfully made it out of slave territory into supposedly “free” states.