The slaveholding republic : an account of the United States government's relations to slavery

This volume analyzes how the government of the United States effectively became an agent of the slaveholding interest, despite the fact that the nation had been founded upon ideals potentially hostile to the institution of slavery.

The anomaly of a "slaveholding republic" began to unravel with the election of Abraham Lincoln, the first president not wholly obedient to that interest.

Written by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Don Fehrenbacher, this book explores the United States government's position on slavery from the writing of the Constitution through the end of the Civil War.