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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.

Slavery --- Antislavery movements --- Law and legislation --- Abolition. --- American Anti-Slavery Society. --- Anti-Federalists. --- Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. --- Dred Scott. --- Emancipation. --- Federal Convention. --- Fugitive slave clause. --- John Calhoun. --- John Quincy Adams. --- Lower South. --- Madison. --- Roger Sherman. --- Stephen Douglas. --- Three-fifths clause. --- Constitutional history