The Civil War's fugitive origins

The War Before the War is mainly a straightforward account of events that, although familiar to professional historians, ought to be known by anyone who claims to know anything about American history

THE WAR BEFORE THE WAR

Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul From the Revolution to the Civil War

Andrew Delbanco

Penguin Press; 453 pages; $30

The Civil War began over one basic issue: Was slavery, the ownership of human beings, a legitimate national institution, fixed in national law by the United States (US) Constitution? One-half of the country said it was, the other said it was not. The ensuing conflict was the chief instigator of Southern secession, as the secessionists themselves proclaimed. It was, thus, the chief source of the war that led to slavery’s abolition in the US.

The struggle