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.