No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding, With a New Preface

Driving straight to the heart of the most contentious issue in American history, Sean Wilentz argues controversially that, far from concealing a crime against humanity, the U.S. Constitution limited slavery's legitimacy--a limitation which in time inspired the antislavery politics that led to Southern secession, the Civil War, and Emancipation.