Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment (Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society) - Softcover

Vorenberg, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521543843 ISBN 13: 9780521543842

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2004

Synopsis

Final Freedom looks at the struggle among legal thinkers, politicians, and ordinary Americans in the North and the border states to find a way to abolish slavery that would overcome the inadequacies of the Emancipation Proclamation. Michael Vorenberg tells the dramatic story of the creation of a constitutional amendment and argues that the crucial consideration of emancipation happened after, not before the Emancipation Proclamation; that the debate over final freedom was shaped by a level of volatility in party politics underestimated by previous historians, and that the abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment represented a novel method of reform that transformed attitudes toward the Constitution. Michael Vorenberg is an assistant professor of history at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He was a research assistant to David Herbert Donald for his prize-winning biography, Lincoln, and he is a contributor to the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association and the Reader's Companion to the American Presidency. This is his first book.

About this title

Book Description:

Final Freedom is a must-read for anyone interested in the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, the Constitution, or slavery. In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which did not actually free any slaves. This book details the fate of emancipation after the Proclamation, focusing on the making and meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery just after the Civil War ended in 1865. Final Freedom tells the dramatic story of the creation of a constitutional amendment and reveals an unprecedented transformation in American race relations, politics, and constitutional thought.

About the Author:

Michael Vorenberg is Assistant Professor of History at Brown University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0521543843
• ISBN 13: 9780521543842
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 324