From the introduction:
This game is designed to teach students about how antebellum Americans understood slavery, race, and the Constitution. It takes place in three parts at three separate meetings during one week in early July 1845, at three locations in New York City:
Meeting I, at the Astor House hotel, a Literary Forum on Douglass’s Narrative, hosted by Charles Dickens, the famous English author and a huge celebrity.
Meeting II, at Delmonico’s restaurant, a banquet for John C. Calhoun, hosted by leading men of commerce of the city
Meeting III, at the Broadway Tabernacle church, a debate on the Constitution, hosted by the Abolitionists.
These three meetings are not real historical events. But the people in the game could have met, since they all lived at the same time. More importantly, the issues they confront in these meetings were widely discussed by Americans from all walks of life.