Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865
James Oakes
Freedom National is a groundbreaking history of emancipation that joins the political initiatives of Lincoln and the Republicans in Congress with the courageous actions of Union soldiers and runaway slaves in the South. It shatters the widespread conviction that the Civil War was first and foremost a war to restore the Union and only gradually, when it became a military necessity, a war to end slavery. These two aims—"Liberty and Union, one and inseparable"—were intertwined in Republican policy from the very start of the war.
By summer 1861 the federal government invoked military authority to begin freeing slaves, immediately and ... Read more
Fresh and compelling, this magisterial history offers a new understanding of the death of slavery and the rebirth of a nation.
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About James Oakes
Reviews for Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865
Walter Russell Mead - Foreign Affairs "Oakes argues that Lincoln, from the moment of his inauguration, began using every ... Read more