The Crooked Path to Abolition

An award-winning scholar uncovers Lincoln’s strategy for abolishing slavery in this groundbreaking history of the sectional crisis and Civil War.

Some celebrate Lincoln for freeing the slaves; others fault him for a long-standing conservatism on abolition and race. James Oakes gives us another option in this brilliant exploration of Lincoln and the end of slavery.

Through the unforeseen challenges of the Civil War crisis, Lincoln and the Republican party adhered to a clear antislavery strategy founded on the Constitution itself. All understood the limits to federal power in the slave states, and the need for state action to abolish slavery finally. But Lincoln and the Republicans claimed strong constitutional tools for federal action against slavery, and they used those tools consistently to undermine slavery, prevent its expansion, and pressure the slave states into abolition. This antislavery Constitution guided Lincoln and his allies as they navigated the sectional crisis and the Civil War. When the states finally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, it was a confirmation of a long-held vision.

About the Author:     
James Oakes is one of our foremost Civil War historians, and two-time winner of the Lincoln Prize. A professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, he lives in New York City.