White masculinity is key to understanding the political and social environment around the expansion of slavery during this period. Indeed, “[w]hite men’s code of masculinity”—or their “ideas about what [makes] them men”—“shape[s] all lives on slavery’s frontier: shape[s] the costs of being black, the benefits of being white, the costs of being female” (217). There are constant struggles to assert and display masculinity, among rich and poor alike. On slavery’s frontier, these struggles are frequently physical and even lethal. As “violent conflicts over status, reputation, and pride of membership, access, and recognition” (221) grow, the rate of white-on-white murder far outstrips the rest of the country.

The equal distribution of power among white men is a key political concern of the moment, with many poorer white men bemoaning the way politics and other power struggles are dominated by “educated, wealthy men from the upper class” (222). Although conflict occurs within class groups, it is particularly pronounced in “less wealthy white men who [move] states [and become] increasingly confrontational toward those who [dare] to act like their betters” (222). On “the most basic level,” such violence works to treat one’s opponent like a slave who cannot “defend their pride, their manhood, or anything else” (219).