The War Before the War
Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
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The War Before the War
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Narrated by:
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Ari Fliakos
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Written by:
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Andrew Delbanco
About this listen
"Excellent...stunning." (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
The devastating story of how fugitive slaves drove the nation to Civil War.
A New York Times Notable Book Selection
Winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
A New York Times Critics' Best Book
For decades after its founding, America was really two nations—one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their lives to flee their masters in the South in search of freedom in the North proved that the "united" states was actually a lie. Fugitive slaves exposed the contradiction between the myth that slavery was a benign institution and the reality that a nation based on the principle of human equality was in fact a prison-house in which millions of Americans had no rights at all. By awakening Northerners to the true nature of slavery, and by enraging Southerners who demanded the return of their human "property", fugitive slaves forced the nation to confront the truth about itself.
By 1850, with America on the verge of collapse, Congress reached what it hoped was a solution - the notorious Compromise of 1850, which required that fugitive slaves be returned to their masters. Like so many political compromises before and since, it was a deal by which white Americans tried to advance their interests at the expense of black Americans. Yet the Fugitive Slave Act, intended to preserve the Union, in fact set the nation on the path to civil war. It divided not only the American nation, but also the hearts and minds of Americans who struggled with the timeless problem of when to submit to an unjust law and when to resist.
The fugitive slave story illuminates what brought us to war with ourselves and the terrible legacies of slavery that are with us still.
©2018 Andrew Delbanco (P)2018 Penguin AudioWhat the critics say
“[A] sweeping and fascinating book . . . a long, festering story of political disunion, mapped through many voices. . . . Delbanco writes lyrically . . . and with a genuine sense of tragedy . . . The War Before the War presents a clear narrative of the legal and political history of [how], self-tortured by the slavery question, a ‘nation’ descended into disunion.”—David Blight, New York Review of Books
“A valuable book, reflective as well as jarring . . . Delbanco, an eminent and prolific scholar of American literature, is well suited to recounting . . . the most violent and enduring conflict in American history.”—Sean Wilentz, New York Times Book Review
“Delbanco . . . excavates the past in ways that illuminate the present. He lucidly shows [how] in the name of avoiding conflict . . . the nation was brought to the brink and into the breach. This is a story about compromises—and a riveting, unsettling one at that.”—Jennifer Szalai, New York Times