Freedom From Above and Below

   In class, our goal was to figure out how enslaved people gained freedom from higher power and how they gained it themselves. Also, we analyzed different pictures and documents to see how Abraham Lincoln's actions were influenced by the actions of enslaved Americans. Lastly, we watched a PBS film called "The Civil War" to help further us understand how people were gaining their freedom.

  Although there was many enslaved people, some would later get freed from a higher power, or from a lower power. In the picture above it shows Abraham Lincoln giving power to a slave. This would be an example of freedom from above, because the slave is getting freedom through someone in a higher class. In the PBS film, it showed how a girl escaped a plantation and hid in her grandmothers attic. She later left and went North to gain her freedom. This is an example of freedom from below because she did not have any one from a higher class help her gain freedom.

    During the course of the Civil war, Abraham Lincoln's' views on enslaved Americans changed. He started off saying  "If i could save the union without freeing any slave, i would do it; and if i could save the it by freeing all the saves, i would do it; and if i could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, i would also do that."  Lincoln said this in his opening letter to Horace Greeley in 1862. This shows his biggest concern was not freeing enslaved Americans, it was saving the union. In 1862, the union was not winning most battles, it was mostly the confederate side. He felt that he should save the union first, then he would focus on freeing the slaves. A couple months later Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg address. He said "It is rather for us to be here dedicated the the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-- that we highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." After writing this he realized that the cause of the war was about slavery, not just the North vs South. He realizes tons of people lost their life for this cause, and he felt that slavery should be abolished immediately.