Books in the Perspectives on the History of Congress, 1801-1877 series

During the long decade from 1848 to 1861 America was like a train speeding down the track, without an engineer or brakes. The new territories acquired from Mexico had vastly increased the size of the nation, but debate over their status - and importantly the status of slavery within them - paralyzed the nation. This book examines these issues.

ΓÇ£When Lincoln took office, in March 1861, the national government had no power to touch slavery in the states where it existed. Lincoln understood this, and said as much in his first inaugural address, noting: ΓÇÿI have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.ΓÇÖΓÇ¥ How, then, asks Paul Finkelman in the introduction to Lincoln, Congress, and Emancipation, did LincolnΓÇöwho personally hated slaveryΓÇölead the nation through the Civil War to January 1865, when Congress passed the constitutional amendment that ended slavery outright?The essays in this book examine the route Lincoln took to achieve emancipation and how it is remembered both in the United States and abroad. The ten contributorsΓÇöall on the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship on Lincoln and the Civil WarΓÇöpush our understanding of this watershed moment in US history in new directions. They present wide-ranging contributions to Lincoln studies, including a parsing of the sixteenth presidentΓÇÖs career in Congress in the 1840s and a brilliant critique of the historical choices made by Steven Spielberg and writer Tony Kushner in the movie Lincoln, about the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.As a whole, these classroom-ready readings provide fresh and essential perspectives on LincolnΓÇÖs deft navigation of constitutional and political circumstances to move emancipation forward.Contributors: L. Diane Barnes, Jenny Bourne, Michael Burlingame, Orville Vernon Burton, Seymour Drescher, Paul Finkelman, Amy S. Greenberg, James Oakes, Beverly Wilson Palmer, Matthew Pinsker

ΓÇ£When Lincoln took office, in March 1861, the national government had no power to touch slavery in the states where it existed. Lincoln understood this, and said as much in his first inaugural address, noting: ΓÇÿI have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.ΓÇÖΓÇ¥ How, then, asks Paul Finkelman in the introduction to Lincoln, Congress, and Emancipation, did LincolnΓÇöwho personally hated slaveryΓÇölead the nation through the Civil War to January 1865, when Congress passed the constitutional amendment that ended slavery outright?The essays in this book examine the route Lincoln took to achieve emancipation and how it is remembered both in the United States and abroad. The ten contributorsΓÇöall on the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship on Lincoln and the Civil WarΓÇöpush our understanding of this watershed moment in US history in new directions. They present wide-ranging contributions to Lincoln studies, including a parsing of the sixteenth presidentΓÇÖs career in Congress in the 1840s and a brilliant critique of the historical choices made by Steven Spielberg and writer Tony Kushner in the movie Lincoln, about the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.As a whole, these classroom-ready readings provide fresh and essential perspectives on LincolnΓÇÖs deft navigation of constitutional and political circumstances to move emancipation forward.Contributors: L. Diane Barnes, Jenny Bourne, Michael Burlingame, Orville Vernon Burton, Seymour Drescher, Paul Finkelman, Amy S. Greenberg, James Oakes, Beverly Wilson Palmer, Matthew Pinsker

Jacksonian democracy; sectionalism; secession; history of Congress; American history

This volume explores the twin issues of how slavery made life possible in America's capital city, with black slaves serving the legislators, bureaucrats and military leaders, and how lawmakers in the District regulated slavery in the nation.

Drawn from a wide range of historical expertise and approaching the topic from a variety of angles, these essays explore the changes in life at home during the Civil War that led to a revolution in American society and set the stage for the making of modern America.

Contributors explore how the end of the Civil War continued the trauma of the conflict and also enhanced the potential for the new birth of freedom that Lincoln promised in the Gettysburg Address, particularly when it came to the Fourteenth Amendment.