Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Penguin Random House USA (2019), 480 pages
Description
Explains how fugitive slaves escaping from the South to the northern states awakened northerners to the true nature of slavery and how the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act divided the nation and set it on the path to civil war.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Darcia
Most history books covering the period from the Revolution to the Civil War are written from the white person's perspective. Whether looking at it from the south or the north, pro- or antislavery, events are often told as if African Americans sat silently awaiting their rescue. I love that this
Throughout the narrative, the author makes some compelling references to current events, inadvertently reminding us that maybe we haven't moved as far from our dark past as we'd like to think. He gives us much to think about, not least of which being how a country founded on freedom and personal liberty could ever legitimize the right to own another person.
While the subject matter is dense and complex, the writing style is engaging. I felt like I was transported back to this tumultuous time.
I'd like to see this book as required reading for every high school student. And maybe those students should then pass the book on to their parents. We need to acknowledge the fissures that divided our country have shifted but haven't healed. This book goes a long way to showing us the how and why.
*I received an advance copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*
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book flips all that upside down, showing us how slaves and free blacks both worked together and clashed during this period. We're shown how and why the Fugitive Slave Act was enacted, the resulting problems for all citizens, and the ever-widening divide between the southerners clinging to their right to "own" people and the northerners growing inability to look away. And, maybe most importantly, we're shown how African Americans rose up and demanded change.Throughout the narrative, the author makes some compelling references to current events, inadvertently reminding us that maybe we haven't moved as far from our dark past as we'd like to think. He gives us much to think about, not least of which being how a country founded on freedom and personal liberty could ever legitimize the right to own another person.
While the subject matter is dense and complex, the writing style is engaging. I felt like I was transported back to this tumultuous time.
I'd like to see this book as required reading for every high school student. And maybe those students should then pass the book on to their parents. We need to acknowledge the fissures that divided our country have shifted but haven't healed. This book goes a long way to showing us the how and why.
*I received an advance copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*
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LibraryThing member muddyboy
This is a well documented history about the background of the fights over slavery in the period before the Civil War. I teach at a junior college and I learned a lot of information about things like the character Captain Ahab in Moby Dick was modeled after the ardent pro slavery advocate John C.
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Calhoun. I also learned much about Henry Clay and Daniel Webster who were crucial in the debates. Any student of history will find value reading this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member Schmerguls
5639. The War Before the War Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War, by Andrew Delbanco (read 12 Jul 2019) This 2018 book examines the provision in Article 4 of the Constitution which dealt with the matter of fugitive slaves. The author says without
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that provision the slave states would not have ratified the Constitution. As opposition to slavery rose in the nation that provision and the laws enacted pursuant thereto led to the dilemma: should the law and the constitution be obeyed despite the abhorrent insult to one's conscience. The whole tortured history is recited and examined in this book and I am pretty well convinced that only a waras long as the Civil War and as decisive as the Civil War could resolve the difficulty. Much in the book was not new to me but the matter is carefully examined and convincingly shows that only a war as decisive as the Civil War turned out to be could have solved the matter in freedom's favor. The book is persuasive and made me appreciate yet again the wisdom of Lincoln and marvel at the good fortune this country had in having him become president. Show Less
Awards
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (Nonfiction — 2019)
Mark Lynton History Prize (Winner — 2019)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2019)