Title: Final freedom
First published: 2001
Description: "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 Americans in the North and the border states to find a way to abolish slavery that would overcome the inadequacies of the Emancipation Proclamation. 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 crucial consideration of emancipation occurred after, not before, the Emancipation Proclamation; that the debate over final freedom was shaped by a level of volatility in society and politics underestimated by prior historians; and that the abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment represented a novel method of reform that transformed attitudes toward the Constitution."--Jacket.
Subjects: African Americans, History, Politics and government, Constitutional history, Slaves, Emancipation, Civil rights, United States, United States. President (1861-1865 : Lincoln), United States Civil War, 1861-1865, Constitutional amendments, united states, Emancipation proclamation, Slaves, emancipation, united states, African americans, civil rights, Constitutional history, united states, United states, history, civil war, 1861-1865, african americans, United states, politics and government, 1861-1865, United states, history, civil war, 1861-1865, Slavery, united states, history, Constitutional amendments
Places: United States
Time periods: Civil War, 1861-1865, 1861-1865, 19th century
LC classification: E453 .V67 2001