The Declaration of Independence and Antebellum Philadelphia Gothic

This book reconsiders the founding document of the United States at a crucial moment in its history. Focusing on gothic fiction published in Philadelphia roughly during the period 1830–1855, Henry argues that the newly developing American national mythology also gave rise to much darker accounts of the nation’s descent into mob violence, corruption, and the breakdown of the rule of law. In stories that reconceive history as gothic romance, Edgar Allan Poe, George Lippard, and Robert Montgom...