Prelude to Civil War: Southern Economic Necessity VS Northern Anti-Black Racism

The American Civil War of 1861-65 is Greek tragedy writ large. Beginning in 1619, when the first colonists land in Virginia, Prelude to War painstakingly shows how slavery was built into the fabric of American society. Author Robert Drane traces the events that make the Civil War inevitable, beginning with the U.S. Constitution's declaration, ratified in 1788, that Africans are three-fifths of a free individual, officially sanctioning slavery. The 1819 Tallmadge Amendment signals the North'...