Freedom Comes from Above

This week in class we discussed the freeing of slaves during the Civil War, and if their freedom came from above, the government, or below, from the slaves themselves. We also looked at how Lincoln's actions influenced the actions of the American slaves. To find the answers to the essential questions, we looked at documents like the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, the Gettysburg Address, and the Second Inaugural Address. Through our research, I discovered that freedom for the slaves did inevitably come from above.

Although the slaves fought hard for their freedom, they only got it when the government officially abolished slavery. In Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation he states that "all persons held as slaves within any state...in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." And in his Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address he shows that he believes that slavery in the United States is wrong. This shows that no matter how hard the slaves pushed for their freedom, they were only able to get it from the people who had the most power, the government.

Even in today's society, things that people want to achieve seem to have to be given from above. Whether it be a job that they want, or an issue that they want reformed, people have to wait for higher power to achieve it. The same went for the slaves during the Civil War. They wanted their freedom, and when Lincoln began to give it to them, slave and abolitionists pushed even harder. But inevitably, the freedom that they wanted was only achieved with the help and agreement of the people above.


"Freedom to the Slaves"  from class notes on Edline.

"Finding" Trends in the Civil War

This week in class we examined the victors of battles in the Civil War through a scavenger hunt around the school. We each were assigned a battle, and we found the theater, east, west, or naval, the victor, and the reasons for the victory. We put our information into a Google doc, put the link in a QR code, and then hung them around the school. (See mine here: http://bit.ly/CivilWarBattle3). Then, we used the information we got from everyone's QR codes to answer the essential questions, "Who was the ultimate victor in the theaters of the war: East, West, Naval? What are some commonalities you can identify in the reasons for the results of the battles?" As a class we each answered these questions for two of the theaters in a Padlet.

View our class Padlet here:

Created with Padlet

Of course, the Union Army won the Civil War, but they didn't dominate all theaters. They dominated both the Western and Naval theaters, but the Confederate dominated the East. Throughout the Western battles, the North consistently outnumbered the South with more men and defeated them with stronger weaponry. For example, at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6 and 7, 1862 and the Battle of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, the North outnumbered the South by 10,000 men, and the South had more than 8 times the amount of men missing or captured. The North also dominated the Naval Theater with fleets much stronger than those in the South. At both the Battle of Baton Rouge and the Battle of Fort Donelson, the Union attacked so heavily on the enemy ships that they caused enough damage to force the Confederates to surrender. Although the Confederates didn’t win as many battles as the North, they were still able to dominate the Eastern Theater. Each Confederate victory in the east was a result of large amounts of Union casualties. The Battle of Fredericksburg left 13,300 Union casualties, while the Second Battle of Bull Run resulted in over 5,500 more.

Through this scavenger hunt we learned about each theater of the Civil War, and saw trends in the results of the battles. I really enjoyed doing this activity because it was a creative and fun way for us to learn the information, instead of just taking basic notes. Instead of just sitting in the classroom, it was nice to be able to get up and move around the school...even though it was a little tiring.