The War Before the War

Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War

By: Andrew Delbanco

Narrated by: Ari Fliakos

“Excellent . . . stunning.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates

The devastating story of how fugitive slaves drove the nation to Civil War

A New York Times Notable Book Selection * Winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize* Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award * A New York Times Critics' Best Book

For decades after its founding, America was really two nations—one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their lives to flee their masters in the South in search of freedom in the North proved that the "united" states was actually a lie. Fugitive slaves exposed the contradiction between the myth that slavery was a benign institution and the reality that a nation based on the principle of human equality was in fact a prison-house in which millions of Americans had no rights at all. By awakening northerners to the true nature of slavery, and by enraging southerners who demanded the return of their human "property," fugitive slaves forced the nation to confront the truth about itself.

By 1850, with America on the verge of collapse, Congress reached what it hoped was a solution—the notorious Compromise of 1850, which required that fugitive slaves be returned to their masters. Like so many political compromises before and since, it was a deal by which white Americans tried to advance their interests at the expense of black Americans. Yet the Fugitive Slave Act, intended to preserve the Union, in fact set the nation on the path to civil war. It divided not only the American nation, but also the hearts and minds of Americans who struggled with the timeless problem of when to submit to an unjust law and when to resist.

The fugitive slave story illuminates what brought us to war with ourselves and the terrible legacies of slavery that are with us still.

Outstanding research, beautiful prose. 

Painful story because it tells a sad tale of centuries long greed, the plunder of Africa, the real cause of the American Civil War in great detail, and the legacy it leaves the present day .

An excellent accounting of a historical tragedy

Andrew Delbanco's novel is one of the finest accounts of the horrors of slavery and how that institution propelled America towards civil war. Told in a narrative format that is as gripping as it shocking, Ari Fliakos does an excellent job of bringing Delbanco's story to life, and his pitch-perfect tone conveys the author's implicit lamentations on the era in a way that few narrators could match.

an excellent narrative and analysis

an excellent narrative and analysis of the years preceding the Civil War and beyond

Should be required reading in US

There are so many parallels to the dynamics of contemporary south/north rural/urban US. It had me thinking often of complicity with environmental destruction and mass extinction.

Filled in a huge gap in history for me

Liberal from the Northeast here. Slavery, bad. South, bad. This book didn't change that perspective drastically, but the moral and legal tussle, and gradual conflict was exquisitely unfolded in this book. The American Experiment is by no means perfect, and looking in the rear view mirror can be frustrating and very embarrassing, but the detail here helps make some sense of why war was inevitable. Great read.