Fort Morgan Public Library

"Upon his election as President of the troubled United States, Abraham Lincoln faced a dilemma. He knew it was time for slavery to go, but how fast could the country change without being torn apart? Many abolitionists wanted Lincoln to move quickly, overturning the founding documents along the way. But Lincoln believed there was a way to extend equality to all while keeping and living up to the Constitution that he loved so much-if only he could buy...

Describes the people involved on both sides of the famous Supreme Court case, regarding whether or not slaves had rights as citizens of the United States.

Places the events relating to the 1857 Supreme Court decision regarding rights of slaves into the larger context of the conflict about slavery among the states.

Beginning with its introduction to the first English colonies in North America, slavery in the United States lasted as a legal institution until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. The author demonstrates that the Constitution was pro-slavery in its politics, its economics, and its law.

It is commonly, but incorrectly, asserted that because Washington and Jefferson owned slaves, because women, even after the American Revolution, enjoyed virtually no rights, and because the poor and those without property were denied the basic tenets of democratic participation, the Founders were frauds who never really believed that "all men were created equal.". West demonstrates why such politically correct interpretations are not only dead wrong,...

"The evolution of the battle for true equality in America seen through the men, ideas, and politics behind the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments passed at the end of the Civil War. On July 4, 1852, Frederick Douglass stood in front of a crowd in Rochester, New York, and asked, "What to the slave is the Fourth of July?" The audience had invited him to speak on the day celebrating freedom, and had expected him to offer a hopeful message about America;...