A performance : Spring 1891, Hartford, Connecticut -- 1839 -- Slavery and the Clemens family -- The abolition movement across the river -- The contest begins -- The trial of Thompson, Work, and Burr -- Judge John Marshall Clemens -- Slavery and the churches of Hannibal -- The theology of slavery -- The face of domestic slavery in Hannibal -- The siege begins -- The emancipation and colonization movement -- 1849 and 1850 : terror in Marion County -- Sam Clemens and the press in slave culture -- Runaway slaves and slave resistance -- Battling abolitionists in the press : the enemy without -- Dehumanizing the slave in the press -- The slave trade in Hannibal -- Leaving Hannibal and taking a swipe at the abolitionists -- The great change : the railroad -- Steamboating days -- Sam Clemens comes back to fight.