This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Discussion about the problems with the sole source used may be found on the talk page. (March 2012)

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2012)

An animation showing the free/slave status of U.S. states and territories, 1789-1861.

In the United States of America prior to the American Civil War, a slave state was a U.S. state in which slavery was legal, whereas a free state was one in which slavery was either prohibited from its entry into the Union or eliminated over time. Slavery was one of the causes of the American Civil War and was abolished by the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution in 1865.

Background[link]

The Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States, including Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, had legally permitted slavery in the 17th, 18th, and even part of the 19th centuries, but in the generation or two before the American Civil War, almost all slaves in such states had been emancipated through a series of statutes.

The first U.S. region entirely free of slavery was the Northwest Territory, which was ordained free under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, passed just before the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The states created from this region—Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota —were generally settled by New Englanders and American Revolutionary War veterans granted land there. Because this region was entirely slave-free from its inception and separated by the Ohio River from the South—which was pushing an expansion of legal slavery into the West—the concept developed of "free states" in contrast to "slave states." The rural parts of these states, at one time in direct East-West rivalry with the Northeastern commercial states, realigned with the Northeastern states, which were newly free of slavery, and together these regions created the amalgamation of states prohibiting slavery, known in the context of the Civil War as the free states.

Anti-slavery settlers in "Bleeding Kansas" in the 1850s were called Free-Soilers, because they fought (successfully) to include Kansas in the Union as a free state.

Original state-based abolition efforts[link]

Prior to the American Revolution, all of the British North American colonies had slavery, but the Revolutionary War gave impetus to a general anti-slavery sentiment. The Northwest Territory, now known as part of the Midwest, was organized under the Northwest Ordinance with a prohibition on slavery in 1787. Massachusetts accepted that its 1780 Constitution effectively abolished slavery, and several other northern states adopted statutes requiring gradual emancipation. In 1804, New Jersey became the last original state to embark on the course of gradual emancipation.

Northern slave states[link]

Conflict over new territories[link]

During the War of 1812, the British promised emancipation to slaves that would support their side. By the end of the War of 1812, the momentum for antislavery reform, state by state, appeared to run out of steam, with half of the states having already abolished slavery (Northeast), prohibited from the start (Midwest) or committed to eliminating slavery, and half committed to continuing the institution indefinitely (South).

The potential for political conflict over slavery at a federal level led politicians to be concerned about the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, where each State was represented by two Senators. With an equal number of slave states and free states, the United States Senate was equally divided. As the population of the free states began to outstrip the population of the slave states, leading to control of the House of Representatives by free states, the Senate became the preoccupation of slave state politicians interested in maintaining a Congressional veto over federal policy in regard to slavery. As a result of this preoccupation, slave states and free states were often admitted into the Union in pairs to maintain the existing Senate balance between slave and free.

Missouri Compromise[link]

Controversy over whether Missouri should be admitted as a slave state, resulted in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which specified that Louisiana Purchase territory north of latitude 36° 30', which described Missouri's southern boundary, would be organized as free states and territory south of that line would be reserved for organization as slave states. As part of that compromise, the admission of Maine as a free state was secured to balance Missouri's admission as a slave state.

[edit] Status of Texas and the Mexican
Cession states

The admission of Texas and the acquisition of vast new western territories after the Mexican-American War further excited controversy. Although the settled portion of Texas was an area rich in cotton plantations and dependent on slavery, the territory acquired in the Mountain West did not seem hospitable to cotton or slavery. In 1850, California was admitted as a free state, without an additional slave state as balance. This would have created a free state majority in the Senate, except that California agreeably sent one pro-slavery and one anti-slavery senator to Washington, D.C. Thus, the admission of California increased the anxiety of pro-slavery politicians but did not change the balance in the Senate.

Last battles[link]

The difficulty of identifying any territory which could be organized into additional slave states stalled the process of opening the western territories to settlement, while slave state politicians sought a solution. Efforts were made to acquire Cuba and to annex Nicaragua, both to be slave states. In 1854, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was repealed, and an effort was initiated to organize Kansas as a slave state. Kansas was paired with Minnesota for admission, but the admission of Kansas as a slave state was blocked because of questions over the legitimacy of its slave state constitution. When the admission of Minnesota proceeded unimpeded in 1858, the balance in the Senate was lost; a loss that was compounded by the subsequent admission of Oregon in 1859.

Slave and free state pairs[link]

Before 1812, the concern about balancing slave-states and free states was not profound. This is how the states lined up in 1812:

Following 1812, and until the Civil War, maintaining the balance of free and slave states within the federal legislature was considered of paramount importance if the Union were to be preserved, and states were typically admitted in pairs:

End of slave states[link]

Maryland,^[2] Missouri,^[3] Tennessee,^[4] the new state of West Virginia,^[5] and the District of Columbia prohibited slavery before the Civil War ended. However, in Delaware^[6] and Kentucky,^[7] slavery continued to be legal until the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery throughout the United States in December 1865, ending the distinction. Ratification of the 13th Amendment was a condition of the return of local rule to those states that had declared their secession.

See also[link]

• Border states (Civil War)
• Confederate States of America
• Red states and blue states

References[link]

• Don E. Fehrenbacher and Ward M. Mcafee; The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government's Relations to Slavery (2002)

External links[link]

• Slavery in the North
• Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice

The Red Ghost (Ivan Kragoff) and his Super-Apes (Mikhlo, Igor and Peotr) are a group of Marvel Comics supervillains, who started their career fighting the Fantastic Four, before confronting other Marvel heroes like Iron Man and Spider-Man. The characters were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Fantastic Four #13 (April, 1963) and #29 (August, 1964).

Fictional character biography[link]

Ivan Kragoff was born in Leningrad, in what was at the time the Soviet Union. Before becoming the Red Ghost, Ivan was a Soviet scientist bent on beating the Americans to the moon and claiming it for the Communist empire. He assembled a crew of three trained primates — Mikhlo the Gorilla, Igor the Baboon, and Peotr the Orangutan — which he subjected to specialized training regimens of his own design, then took off on his lunar rocket trip on behalf of the USSR, while on the very next panel, the Fantastic Four were aiming their own rocket for the same destination.

Kragoff knew enough of the Fantastic Four's history, and he purposefully designed his rocket in such a way that he and his crew would be heavily exposed to the cosmic rays that would, he expected, give them superpowers. This was successful: Kragoff gained the ability to become as intangible and invisible as a "ghost", Mikhlo became super-strong and super-durable, Igor gained the ability to shapeshift and could transform into nearly anything, and Peotr gained the ability to control either gravity (like Graviton) or magnetism (like Magneto) (accounts vary by writer^{[citation needed]}). They landed on the Blue Area of the Moon.

The Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, as he called them, battled the Fantastic Four soon after gaining their powers, first meeting the Thing. Red Ghost encountered Uatu the Watcher during this fight, who said he would bring the two warring groups together in a fight for supremacy over the Moon. The Red Ghost and his apes first defeated the Four and kidnapped the Invisible Girl. But he was defeated by the Fantastic Four and left on the Moon when the apes rebelled against him after the Invisible Girl allowed them access to the food the Red Ghost kept from them by turning on a force field. Mikhalo then broke down the metal door, freeing the Invisible Girl. The Red Ghost got into the Watcher's base hoping to use his secrets, but was unable to understand the technology, and was thrown from the area by the Watcher. The Fantastic Four then used a paralyzing ray to stop him.^[1]

With his Super-Apes, he later again battled the Fantastic Four on the moon, and again encountered the Watcher. Kragoff was accidentally teleported to Earth by the Watcher's matter transporter.^[2] The Red Ghost was expelled from the Communist Party and his Super-Apes were impounded. He formed an alliance with the Mole Man who was trying to use an earthquake machine to attack the surface world, and battled the Avengers, but was defeated.^[3] Back with the Super-Apes again, Kragoff appeared among the villains assembled by Doctor Doom to destroy the Fantastic Four.^[4] Kragoff eventually lost his original powers. He formed an alliance with the Unicorn to steal Anthony Stark's cosmic-ray intensifier, which he used to gain the new superhuman power of a mist-like form and to give powers to his new trained apes, Alpha and Beta.^[5] He battled Iron Man and the Unicorn, but was defeated by Alpha and Beta, who turned against him.^[6] He later formed an alliance with Attuma and battled the Defenders, but was defeated.^[7]

Additional exposures[link]

Kragoff next experimented with a cosmic-ray intensifier to attempt to increase his own superhuman powers but instead unintentionally caused himself to be unable to leave a state of intangibility. He had his original Super-Apes kidnap Anthony Stark and forced him to build a “cosmitronic cannon" and return him to a tangible state. He battled Iron Man, but the next time Kragoff became intangible, his atoms began to disperse as a side effect of his treatment with the cannon. Kragoff’s consciousness managed to force his atoms to remain together, although his body remained in an intangible and, at times, invisible state.^[8]

Months later, Mister Fantastic went into space to expose himself to cosmic radiation to revitalize his own powers. Unknown to Richards, Kragoff, still intangible, was also aboard the spaceship. Kragoff used his invisibility to hide from Richards for days until he was able to immerse himself into cosmic radiation. The radiation restored his powers to what they originally had been. The Red Ghost could again become tangible or intangible and visible and invisible at will. He even gained the power to make other objects in his vicinity intangible and invisible. Fully recovered, he battled the Fantastic Four, and escaped.^[9]

With the Super-Apes, the Red Ghost attempted to steal a rare mathematical treatise from Empire State University. He battled Spider-Man, but escaped.^[10] He attempted to cause earthquakes in Soviet cities, and battled the Soviet Super-Soldiers.^[11] He forced the Black Fox to accompany the Super-Apes on robberies. He once again battled Spider-Man, but escaped.^[12]

Alongside Klaw, Living Laser, and Venom during the Acts of Vengeance, he attempted to steal alien technology from the Watcher's home on the moon. Red Ghost used the powers he had gained from his re-exposure to attack Quasar. He was captured in this attempt.^[13] With the Super-Apes, the Red Ghost attempted to steal the alien technology of the smartship Friday; he battled Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, and Power Pack, and was captured.^[14]

The Super-Apes later show up alone, having divorced themselves from the Red Ghost and started a life of crime on their own by taking over a private zoo in Salina, Kansas. They had turned the animals against the local population and captured three members of the New Warriors when they entered the complex. Instead of fighting their way out of the situation, they used their intellects and settled on a peaceful coexistence with the people of the town.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Shortly after the Fantastic Four returned from a pocket dimension created by Franklin Richards, the Super-Apes had gained high levels of intelligence and were working on a virus that would take out humans, leaving simians dominant. The Red Ghost, conversely, had degenerated into a child-like mental state and spent most of the time interested in a bunny rabbit.^{[volume & issue needed]}

The Red Ghost and the Super-Apes teamed up again and the Red Ghost regained his original intelligence. They attempted to build a new Communist state in the political vacuum of Niganda — the Socialist Simian Republic of Niganda, "A country where a new form of Marxist-Leninist socialism can grow, based on the purity of the ape world."^{[volume & issue needed]}

Red Ghost later appeared as a member of Intelligencia.^[15] While Red Hulk was fighting the X-Men, Red Ghost managed to capture Beast and Black Panther and sent his Super Apes to assist Red Hulk only to attack Red Hulk. Mikhlo was killed by Red Hulk, which enraged the Red Ghost.^[16]

The Red Ghost replaced Mikhlo with Grigori, a baby gorilla that was possbily stolen from the Leningrad. The Red Ghost gave Grigori super strength via scraps left behind by Department X. Red Ghost's new team was short lived as not long after creating Grigori, the She-Hulks attacked and captured the foursome.^[17]

The Red Ghost was with the Intelligencia when they were attacked by the Sinister Six. During the battle, he and his apes were killed when Doctor Octopus used the Zero Cannon to launch them into space.^[18]

Powers and abilities[link]

The Red Ghost possesses the ability to become intangible at will. Through concentration, the Red Ghost can achieve different degrees of intangibility and can even become like a diffuse mist. He can either float while intangible or walk on air (in a manner similar to Shadowcat). He has used his power offensively by leaving an object inside a person's body or phasing out their heart.^{[volume & issue needed]} The Red Ghost can become transparent or invisible when in intangible form, to the extent that Reed Richards was unable to detect him hiding in the same spacecraft over several days with sensitive equipment. The Red Ghost can alter the tangibility of parts of his body independently of each other. Thus, he can grab an object in a hand while the rest of his body remains intangible.

Since his additional exposures to cosmic rays,^{[volume & issue needed]} Red Ghost can make people and objects become intangible if they are nearby or in his field of vision.

While he is intangible, his body metabolism enables him to go without eating or without breathing for extended periods of time.

Achievements[link]

The Red Ghost is a scientific genius with advanced knowledge in fields including rocketry, engineering, communications, genetics, robotics, physics, hypnotism, and the training of simians. He is an expert in radiology with a Ph. D. in radiology. He has perfected force-field devices, devices to mentally communicate with and control other primates, a cosmitronic gun, freeze ray pistols, rocket fuel from material found in a meteorite crater, and spacecraft made of transparent ceramic plastic to be unshielded against cosmic ray storms. He has studied various forms of socialist and communist theory.

Other versions[link]

Ultimate Red Ghost[link]

The Ultimate version of Ivan Kragoff was introduced in Ultimate Fantastic Four #47 (Dec 2007). He is based in a laboratory in Siberia, and is first seen experimenting on a bear named Misha, with the ability to talk. He is in contact with Dr. Franklin Storm, and persuades Storm that Sue and Reed might be interested in his work. His assistant Sorba Rutskaya then destroys their plane with a beam weapon and captures them. It appears Kragoff's work is focused towards reviving a woman named Irina, whom Storm believes is dead. Sorba later stabs Kragoff, and reveals that she plans on using a beam of energy from the N-Zone to merge herself with Sue so that she can gain her powers and use them to destroy those that she believes are harming nature. As the beam is about to combine the two, Sue escapes and the beam hits Sorba and several vials of simian DNA. When the smoke clears, it is revealed that Sorba has become a gigantic, deformed, gorilla-like creature with multiple simiian limbs and heads, as well as a single human head which retains her insane personality. She begins to attack Sue as Reed, Johnny, Ben, and The Crimson Dynamo rush to save Sue. Sue is able to "overload" her by inserting many other samples of animal DNA. In addition to possessing the intangibility powers of the original Red Ghost, Sorba can also create apes and monkeys from her body that are subservient to her will. Each creature is capable of manifesting N-Zone superpowers.^[19]

In other media[link]

Television[link]

• The Red Ghost and the Super-Apes appeared twice in the 1960s Fantastic Four TV series, voiced by Vic Perrin.
• In the Iron Man episode "Enemy Within, Enemy Without," Red Ghost was the one responsible for the creation of MODOK when he was jealous for his love for Alana Ulanova.
• The Red Ghost appeared in the The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "The Breakout". He and his Super-Apes are shown as inmates of the Big House when a mass breakout occurs. They briefly reappear in the episode "Ultron-5", where they are shown unconscious after having been defeated offscreen by the Hulk and Black Panther.

Video games[link]

• The Red Ghost and the Super-Apes appear as enemies in the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer video game. The Fantastic Four fight him and his apes on a space station. He reveals to them that Galactus is coming, and that they must stay on the station if they hope to survive. In the end, the four escape and tell him to come with them off the station (which is self destructing), but he refuses and disappears when they leave. It is unknown if he survived.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Red Ghost at Marvel.com