To better understand the events and perspectives in Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, it is important to understand the connection between abolition, slavery, and the Civil War. The Civil War marks a major shift in the American cultural identity. The battle lines drawn in 1861 are still relevant today, both in politics and cultural heritage. The Civil War represents a point in history when many in the United States took a stand against slavery; its events include a complex struggle in the context of autonomy, freedom, and states’ rights. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy illustrates with nuance the evolving perspectives of contemporaries of the Civil War, examining the divergent views of women in particular.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Lincoln and the Union were reluctant to acknowledge the war’s abolitionist roots. The fear was that portraying the war as about abolishing slavery would drive those states already on the edge of secession to join the Confederacy. Lincoln and the military initially adopted a policy of appeasement to maintain the tenuous loyalty of states on the Mason-Dixon line, the border between the Confederacy and Union. Those states were generally slave states outright or states with large exceptions to their laws against slavery, culturally split between the Union and Confederacy.