Four Cedars

Just outside the old Indian village of Tiskilwa Lycurgus Sherwood lies crumpled in the sawdust of a big revival tent, cut down even as he received the Fullness of the Blessing. His wife Rachael and frontier Doctor Charles Cutter transport the wounded Surge to nearby Princeton, where they seek refuge at the home of Owen Lovejoy. Their meeting with this determined foe of slavery-and his equally formidable opposition- show Lycurgus that it is frontier Illinois' compromise with slavery that has fostered the border state's ambivalence and division.