An exceptional copy. 2008 Stapled Binding. We have more books available by this author!. This story begins with the hideous contradiction between the ideals of liberty and the practice of slavery in America. From the seed of 'slavery containment' within the fifteen slave states grew a national law banning slavery, crafted in large part by the words and actions of Abraham Lincoln. Read primary source documents that take you on a journey through the evolution of liberty, culminating with the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. This book focuses on Lincoln's words and actions to abolish slavery in the decade before he signed the 13th Amendment in 1865.