Freedom from Above or Below

In class we talked about the freeing of slaves. But how the slaves were freed, and who freed them is still not 100% credible to one person or a group person. Our question in this unit was "who really freed the slaves?" There are two sides to this. One is the higher power, the few people at the top of the social pyramid who have the power and ability to abolish slavery. But the other side is the numerous people at the bottom of the social pyramid, the slaves, or the lower class citizens. In class, we went over 4 documents that Lincoln wrote regarding slavery, including the Gettysburg address and the Emancipation Proclamation. More information on these can be found in the 2nd paragraph. We also watched some video clips about these documents and how they affected the nation. We looked at some pictures, such as the one below, that helped us understand the issue.



Freedom From Above
Abraham Lincoln is a great example of someone who shows his ability to help the anti slavery cause and help with freedom from above. The first example is the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln says "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Lincoln is telling the nation that he knew all along that the purpose for the war was to eliminate slavery. Even though it may not have seemed like it at first, it was the overall goal the entire time. Also, in the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln says "the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free..." Using his power, Lincoln is able to officially free the slaves. They can no longer be slaves, and have all of the rights that the white men have. Freedom from above is usually caused by a person of high power using his or her power to help the lower class citizens. In this case, Lincoln uses his executive power as president to free the slaves.

Freedom From Below
The slaves of the south wanted freedom, and they will take action to do so. In Document X, it says talks about a town that had been abandoned by the people living in it when Union soldiers came through it, but now there were freemen rummaging through the remains. Later during the war, another group of Union soldiers come through the town to find all of these freemen, and they were forced to take them along. Similarly, in Document Y, a large group of freemen come to a resting group of Union soldiers, and force themselves on the union soldiers. In both of these situations the slaves force themselves on the Union soldiers. While this may not have been best for the Union soldiers at the time, they were okay with it because it was their goal in the war to free the slaves and help the freemen.


My Opinion
I think, that in the end, freedom comes from below. While this may not always be the case, I think that it is this way most of the time. For example, in Baltimore, there were riots for weeks and weeks following police brutality. While this is still an ongoing issue, it made leaps and bounds towards a lessening of excessive police force in America. And this is because the people of Baltimore decided to do something about it. Instead of waiting for someone with power to come in and say something, the people did something to make change. I think it is this way most of the time because the few people at the top are often more worried about other matters, but when large issues are brought to their attention, they will usually act.