Traces the history of emancipation and its impact on the Civil War, discussing how Lincoln and the Republicans fought primarily for freeing slaves throughout the war, not just as a secondary objective in an effort to restore the country.

"Ultimate extinction" -- "Disunion is abolition" -- "Fulfillment of the prophecies" -- August 8, 1861 : emancipation begins -- The Border States -- "Self-emancipation" -- "By the act of Congress they are clearly free" -- "A cordon of freedom" -- The "preliminary" proclamation -- The Emancipation Proclamation -- "The system yet lives" -- "Our fathers were mistaken" -- Was freedom enough?