In “The Land­scape of Fear,” set in 1860, Ruf­fin is dis­heart­ened by Lin­col­n’s nom­i­na­tion as the Repub­li­can can­di­date, per­ceiv­ing him as too mod­er­ate to incite the nec­es­sary out­rage for South­ern seces­sion. Ruf­fin had antic­i­pat­ed a nom­i­na­tion for Seward, whom he believed would incite the South more effec­tive­ly. Trav­el­ing through Vir­ginia en route to meet his daugh­ter Mil­dred, Ruf­fin is engulfed by a per­va­sive fear of slave insur­rec­tions, fueled by recent events like John Brown’s raid and omi­nous rumors about poi­son­ing and upris­ings spread­ing through the South.

As Ruf­fin nav­i­gates this anx­ious land­scape, trou­bling inci­dents, such as the mur­der of Con­gress­man Keit­t’s broth­er by enslaved indi­vid­u­als, height­en South­ern fear and para­noia about Lincoln’s poten­tial lead­er­ship. These anx­i­eties are com­pound­ed by nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, like a severe drought affect­ing crops and threat­en­ing food sup­ply, which deep­en South­ern dis­tress as the impend­ing elec­tion draws near­er.

Upon reach­ing White Sul­phur Springs, Vir­ginia, Ruf­fin finds a bustling resort, his­tor­i­cal­ly fre­quent­ed by South­ern elites seek­ing social engage­ment and refresh­ment. How­ev­er, he is dis­il­lu­sioned by the atmos­phere and the indif­fer­ence of fel­low guests to his fer­vent advo­ca­cy for seces­sion. Notably, he learns that his daugh­ter will not join him as planned, prompt­ing a change in his jour­ney.

Trav­el­ing to Frank­fort, Ken­tucky, Ruf­fin encoun­ters staunch Union sen­ti­ments, even among his son-in-law, cre­at­ing a tense envi­ron­ment for polit­i­cal dis­cus­sions. His efforts to pro­mote seces­sion through let­ters to South­ern news­pa­pers yield lit­tle inter­est, and the release of his own book, “Antic­i­pa­tions of the Future,” is met with silence.

As Elec­tion Day looms, Ruf­fin grows increas­ing­ly con­vinced that Lincoln’s pres­i­den­cy would her­ald a dire fate for slav­ery and the South’s pros­per­i­ty. Beset by a sense of impend­ing doom, wor­ry about the nation’s future ampli­fies his iso­la­tion as a pro-seces­sion­ist amidst a cli­mate fraught with ten­sion and divi­sion. The chap­ter con­veys the pal­pa­ble fear among South­ern lead­ers, the social cli­mate of the time, and Ruffin’s unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to his cause, even in the face of over­whelm­ing oppo­si­tion.