The issue of slavery inevitably arises during a reading of The Great Little Madison.

It is an issue that nearly divided the American colonies at the outset of their war for independence, nearly divided them during the Constitutional Convention, and eventually resulted in the Civil War that claimed more battlefield casualties than had any other war before its time and more than the sum from all wars in which the United States engaged since, and which has left a legacy of anger and hatred that still troubles Americans. It is hard to look back on Madison, Jefferson, Washington, and others who proclaimed the rights of humanity and understand why they continued to own slaves, something they acknowledged to be a despicable custom. It was George Washington's belief that slavery was an antiquated economical model that would disappear within a generation of his own day; he had...