Audiobook6 hours
The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution
Written by James Oakes
Narrated by Bob Souer
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
An award-winning scholar uncovers the guiding principles of Lincoln's antislavery strategies.
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, 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.
President Lincoln took full advantage of the antislavery options opened by the Civil War. 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.
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, 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.
President Lincoln took full advantage of the antislavery options opened by the Civil War. 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.
Related to The Crooked Path to Abolition
Related audiobooks
The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Politicians and the Egalitarians: The Hidden History of American Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement from the Revolution to Reconstruction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reconstruction: A Concise History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Understanding Democracy in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Radicalism of the American Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The "Great Truth" about the "Lost Cause" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInventing Equality: Reconstructing the Constitution in the Aftermath of the Civil War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Black Man's President: Abraham Lincoln, African Americans, & the Pursuit of Racial Equality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Free Enterprise: An American History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Seccession and the President's War Powers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Declaration: A Reading of Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Redeeming the Great Emancipator Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation's Founding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Slavery, American Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
United States History For You
Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Land of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Adams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dragonfire: Four Days That (Almost) Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untold History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Up From Slavery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Crooked Path to Abolition
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
2 ratings0 reviews