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Enormous gatherings and torch-lit marches down Main Street. At first glance, images like these conjure up some of America’s darkest moments. But this wasn’t the Klan. These black-clad torch-bearers were the Wide Awakes: a para-military political machine with one mission: get Abraham Lincoln into the White House and put an end to slavery once and for all. This is the story of how a small group of young, politically-inspired northern nobodies launched a nationwide movement that just may have helped to rewrite American History.

 

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