Andrew Delbanco

"The ... story of how fugitive slaves drove the nation to Civil War"--]cProvided by publisher.

Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War

The War Before the War

Jeremy Anderberg

Right from the nation's founding, tensions simmered between North and South, largely about the issue of slavery. Would new states be free or slaveholding? What would happen to runaway slaves who ended up in the North? Compromise after compromise was reached, including a number of resolutions regarding runaways.

Those runaways — fugitives in the eyes of the South — numbered only in the thousands out of millions of slaves. So as a pure percentage, it wasn't a huge issue. But those runaways had an outsized impact on the national discourse.

Delbanco covers that aspect of slavery, while also giving broader context to how baked-in the system was into our founding, including the Constitution. Chapters on the power of slave narratives (including Northup's), the literal fighting in Congress, and the tense years right before the Civil War were particularly interesting. A few chapters dealing with detailed legal matters and interpretations were a little dry, but still not too hard to get through.

The real strength of the book is in Delbanco's ability to relate these issues to our modern day context. He notes that political discourse was far more intense 200 years ago than it is today, that runaway slaves were basically illegal immigrants, etc.

Overall, it's a book that really deepened my understanding of slavery in America. While it's probably not a book for every reader out there, if this is a topic of interest, it's sure to keep your attention and expand your view of America's history.

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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