Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment

325 Pages·2001·1.78 MB·English

by  Michael Vorenberg

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Final Freedom
This book examines emancipation after the Emancipation Proclamation
of 1863 and during the last years of the American Civil War. Focusing on
the making and meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment, Final Freedom
looks at the struggle among legal thinkers, politicians, and ordinary Amer-
icans in the North and the border states to find a way to abolish slavery
that would overcome the inadequacies of the Emancipation Proclama-
tion. The book tells the dramatic story of the creation of a constitutional
amendment and reveals an unprecedented transformation in American
race relations, politics, and constitutional thought. Using a wide array of
archival and published sources, Professor Vorenberg argues that the cru-
cial consideration of emancipation occurred after, not before, the Eman-
cipation Proclamation; that the debate over final freedom was shaped by a
level of volatility in society and politics underestimated by prior histo-
rians; and that the abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment rep-
resented a novel method of reform that transformed attitudes toward the
Constitution.
Michael Vorenberg is Assistant Professor of History at Brown University.

CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL STUDIES IN AMERICAN
LAW AND SOCIETY
Editor
Christopher Tomlins American Bar Foundation
Previously published in the series:
Robert J. Steinfeld, Coercion, Contract, and Free Labor in Nineteenth-
Century America
David M. Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years
Jenny Wahl, The Bondsman’s Burden:
An Economic Analysis of the Common Law of Southern Slavery
Michael Grossberg, A Judgment for Solomon:
The D’Hauteville Case and Legal Experience in Antebellum America

Final Freedom
The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and
the Thirteenth Amendment
MICHAEL VORENBERG
Brown University
         
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  
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477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
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http://www.cambridge.org
©Michael Vorenberg 2004
First published in printed format 2001
ISBN 0-511-04052-0 eBook (netLibrary)
ISBN 0-521-65267-7 hardback
For Dan and Tom, my best teachers