The essential questions
for this lesson are, "who gave freedom to enslaved Americans? Did freedom
come from above or below? To what extent were Abraham Lincoln's actions
influenced by the actions of enslaved Americans". For the activator for
this lesson we analyzed a print called Freedom to the slaves.
Our
task was to put the image into our notes and add speech bubbles for President
Lincoln and the adult African Americans. We had to fill in the speech bubbles
with words or phrases that they would potentially say in the scene. After the
activator, we discussed what freedom from above and freedom from below meant.
Freedom from above means that the people at the top of the social pyramid help
the people at the bottom of the social pyramid gain freedom and freedom from
below means that the people at the bottom of the pyramid are helping themselves
and each other gain the freedom. We also went over a couple examples like
Harriet Jacobs. Harriet Jacobs got her freedom from below because she had to
help herself and suffered greatly trying to gain her freedom. Next, we did a
document assignment. We divided into four groups and each group was assigned
one of the four documents. The four documents included the Open Letter to
Horace Greeley 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation 1863, the Gettysburg Address
1863, and the 2nd Inaugural Address. My group was assigned the 2nd Inaugural
Address. Once we read the document we had to choose the best quote to represent
the Goal of the War, a quote to represent the Position on Freeing the Slaves,
and a quote that showed evidence of President Lincoln's Personal Feelings on
Slavery. When all of the groups finished the activity we then shared our quotes
with the rest of the class and took notes on the quotes that the other groups
chose. After some of the groups shared we watched a couple of clips and videos
elaborating on the topic of the document. For example after the group with the
Emancipation Proclamation shared, we watched a video which discussed the
international impact that the Emancipation Proclamation had which was the Confederacy
would not get foreign aid because the European governments already abolished
slavery so they couldn't support something they had banned. Next, we
analyzed
primary source documents X and Y. One half of the class analyzed
document X and the other half analyzed document Y and then we compared answers.
For the document we had to figure out what was going on in the source, who was
taking action and why, and does the document prove freedom from above or
freedom from below. Document X is a letter talking about how the fugitive
slaves from surrounding plantations were going into the cities that the Union
took over. This primary source proves freedom from below because the slaves are
taking action and forcing the people towards the top of the social pyramid to
acknowledge them. The slaves are taking action by moving themselves into
the city and staying in the homes and using the stuff from the city. Document Y
is an image of the slaves leaving their plantations to go into Chickasaw City
and follow around the Union army troops. This also proves freedom from below
because it shows how the slaves are helping themselves by taking action and
leaving their plantations and getting the troops attention. Lastly, we compared
two images. The first one was the one that we analyzed in the activator. It is
an image that shows the slaves thanking President Lincoln for freeing them, so
this picture presents freedom from above. The other picture that we looked at
was an image of slaves thanking god for giving them the strength and the hope
to free themselves. This picture represents freedom from below.
Freedom from below, in
my opinion, played a huge factor in the freeing of slaves. Document X and
Y both proved freedom from below because like I mentioned before the slaves
were the ones who went into the cities and forced the Union troops to
acknowledge their existence. Also, the Lincoln Documents help prove freedom
from below. The Open Letter to Horace Greeley says, “My paramount object in
this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to destroy
slavery.” It is basically saying that the goal of the war is not at all about
slavery but just about saving the Union. This evidence supports that freedom
came from below because the government was not at all focused on the problems
with slavery at the time yet the slaves somehow got their attention anyways. I
think that Abraham Lincoln's actions were influenced more by the status of the
war than by the actions of enslaved Americans. For example, in the planning of
the Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln waited until a victory from the Union to
announce the proclamation because he did not want it to look desperate if he
was doing it when they were losing the war. This action clearly was not
influenced by the slaves but more the war itself.
