The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution
by Oakes, James
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- ISBN 10
- 1324005858
- ISBN 13
- 9781324005858
- Seller
-
Eureka, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
The long and turning path to the abolition of American slavery has often been attributed to the equivocations and inconsistencies of antislavery leaders, including Lincoln himself. But James Oakes's brilliant history of Lincoln's antislavery strategies reveals a striking consistency and commitment extending over many years. The linchpin of antislavery for Lincoln was the Constitution of the United States.
Lincoln adopted the antislavery view that the Constitution made freedom the rule in the United States, slavery the exception. Where federal power prevailed, so did freedom. Where state power prevailed, that state determined the status of slavery, and the federal government could not interfere. It would take state action to achieve the final abolition of American slavery. With this understanding, Lincoln and his antislavery allies used every tool available to undermine the institution. Wherever the Constitution empowered direct federal action--in the western territories, in the District of Columbia, over the slave trade--they intervened. As a congressman in 1849 Lincoln sponsored a bill to abolish slavery in Washington, DC. He reentered politics in 1854 to oppose what he considered the unconstitutional opening of the territories to slavery by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He attempted to persuade states to abolish slavery by supporting gradual abolition with compensation for slaveholders and the colonization of free Blacks abroad.
President Lincoln took full advantage of the antislavery options opened by the Civil War. Enslaved people who escaped to Union lines were declared free. The Emancipation Proclamation, a military order of the president, undermined slavery across the South. It led to abolition by six slave states, which then joined the coalition to affect what Lincoln called the King's cure: state ratification of the constitutional amendment that in 1865 finally abolished slavery.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Eureka Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 279969
- Title
- The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution
- Author
- Oakes, James
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used
- Jacket Condition
- Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- ISBN 10
- 1324005858
- ISBN 13
- 9781324005858
- Publisher
- W. W. Norton & Company
- Date Published
- 2021
Terms of Sale
Eureka Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item is not as described or it arrives damaged.
About the Seller
Eureka Books
About Eureka Books
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...