Customer Reviews

Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment (Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society)

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This extraordinary and wonderfully written work will change the way that historians view slavery's demise. Previous accounts of the Thirteenth Amendment have depicted its coming as a natural consequence of the Civil War -- a way to make final the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation. Vorenberg shows us that the coming of the Thirteenth Amendment was not inevitable, explains how contingency influenced its development, and reveals the different reasons why Republicans, Democrats, and border state Unionists supported the Amendment.

Amending the Constitution to end slavery was only one of several ways that Americans considered. Vorenberg explains that antebellum Americans were extremely reluctant to revise their Constitution, and even many Republicans regarded constitutional revision to end slavery as too radical. The Civil War's persistence and bloodiness caused many to change their minds, and adopt the Democrats' position of unlimited amending power. Although many historians and legal scholars have downplayed the Thirteenth Amendment's significance, Vorenberg informs us that this amendment marked the beginning of Americans' using constitutional amendments as instruments of social reform. Further, in the years following the Thirteenth Amendment's ratification, Radical Republicans understood it to be the foundation of federal legislation on behalf of African Americans.

This book is well researched, extensively documented, and informed on many historiographical issues. It will benefit both general readers and specialists, and force textbook authors to revise their accounts regarding the end of slavery.

I thought I understood the American Civil War and its role in ending slavery in America, but "Final Freedom" goes far beyond what most history books have to say on the subject. The issue of slavery was an enormously complex one, and bringing it to an end was a process that took decades, perhaps even centuries. Vorenberg's treatment of attitudes towards the Constitution was a revelation to me. Many of those in political power regarded changing the Constitution the way a fundamentalist would think of changing the Bible. How that attitude was overcome is a fascinating journey which follows many paths.