The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution

Finalist for the 2022 Lincoln Prize

The long and turning path to the abolition of American slavery has often been attributed to the equivocations and inconsistencies of antislavery leaders, including Lincoln himself. But James Oakes’s brilliant history of Lincoln’s antislavery strategies reveals a striking consistency and commitment extending over many years. The linchpin of antislavery for Lincoln ...