In which we take a fast pass through the abolitionist movement in the United States, and show how it made a significant contribution to the sectional unraveling that led to the Civil War.

Our book recommendation for this episode is The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics by James Oakes.  “The perennial tension between principle and pragmatism in politics frames this engaging account of two Civil War Era icons.  Oakes charts the course by which Douglass and Lincoln, initially far apart on the antislavery spectrum, gravitated toward each other… Douglass’s views on race were essentially modern; the book is really a study through his eyes of the more complex figure of Lincoln.”

Listen to Episode 10: AntiSlaveryMovement