Akron 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 landmark Supreme Court case of Dred Scott, a slave who sued for his freedom, and includes the events leading up to the case, the Supreme Court's ruling, and how it affected future cases and the history of the United States.

A professor of history who specializes in slavery and constitutional law investigates one of the most significant--and unjustly forgotten--Supreme Court cases in American history involving the slave ship Antelope and the three hundred African lives at stake.

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;...