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

I highly, highly recommend Bound for Canaan if you want to understand the human aspect of the movement. It reads sort of like a good Atlantic story: not shying away from historical detail or complexity, but also using and following interesting individuals to highlight whatever broader point he is making.

Read Bound of Canann, which details how many early Christian Americans were abolitionists, even before the South started to develop. For example, there were early Puritans in New England who argued for equality among the races, and Quakers did the same, with their intentions focused on using Christianity to be a force for equality. Their early intentions had little to nothing to do with the South and were purely religious and social justice oriented.