Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement,

Fergus M. Bordewich traces the origins of slavery's decline to a diverse group of ordinary Americans—black and white, slave and free—who united to create the Underground Railroad. This movement occupies a significant place in American imagination, yet its true history is more morally complex and politically divisive than popular myths suggest. Against the backdrop of westward expansion, a fierce clash of values emerged over the country's fundamental direction. The Underground Railroad represented an act of civil disobedience comparable in scale to the American Revolution, one that challenged prevailing social norms and violated federal law. Bound for Canaan interweaves personal narratives with the politics of slavery and abolition, documenting how the Underground Railroad became the country's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for social change. The book tells the stories of men and women who risked their lives to build this network, showing how ordinary Americans defied popular opinion and federal authority to oppose a fundamental moral evil.