Until the Civil War ended in 1865, many considered slavery vital to the survival of the United States, especially in the South. In the North, however, during the years before the Civil War, most people came to reject slavery for moral or political reasons, and it was among these Northerners that the abolition movement began. Author Linda Jacobs Altman explores the extraordinary efforts of the people who used words, money, violence, or simply courage, to fight for the freedom of the slaves. Tracing the history of slavery from its origins in America through its end with the Thirteenth Amendment, Altman shows how abolitionists, and slaves themselves, helped make the Civil War a fight not only to preserve the Union, but to make the nation free.