Andrew Delbanco is the author of The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War. In this discussion, he talks about Abraham Lincoln’s thoughts and writings on slavery, and described how the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act galvanized many northerners to become more active abolitionists.

This talk took place at the annual Lincoln Forum symposium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.