Freedom from Above or Below

The essential question for this lesson was "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? In order to answer the essential questions, each group analyzed one document and found direct quotes from the document which showed the author's thoughts on the goal of the war, position on freeing slaves, and evidence of personal feelings towards slavery. After getting all of the quotes which the other groups found, we analyzed document x and document y, a letter from a general to the secretary of war about the fugitive slaves who were overrunning the city in which the union army had taken over, and an engraving of slaves from Jefferson Davis' plantation arriving at Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi. We then categorized all of the sources into two categories, freedom from above and freedom from below.

I believe that freedom from below is truly what the slaves provided for themselves through their actions; Lincoln was the policy maker who made the change official, but the slaves themselves brought the change about. The slaves completely took it upon themselves to make their issue an issue for the government officials and policy makers, because if they had not taken that action, the government never would have taken notice of the issue and made any change. The slaves' crucial actions in their freedom are shown in the engraving. The engraving clearly shows the slaves following the union armies, and making their presence known in order to get the army to talk to the government, forcing the government to take notice of them and the cause that they were supporting. The importance of freedom from below is also apparent in the general's letter to the secretary of war. Once again, the slaves made themselves an issue for members of the union army because the union soldiers could not send them back to slavery, because their cause by that point included the abolition of slavery. The slaves actions towards the union army specifically made Lincoln take notice of the slaves' cause and made him realize that the change needed to happen faster, because the slaves were not going to back down.

I believe that in order to truly make social change, it must come from below. If the people below who are facing the issues themselves do not make an effort to get the people above to notice their cause, the people above will never be able to implement policies which will make the change official. The people above will never make the issues of the people below a priority because they do not directly affect them, so they need to have the issues put directly in front of them in order to make them take notice. In recent news, transgender issues have become pressing in our society, and it has become more of a nationwide focus to make sure transgender people are accepted, given fair and equal job opportunities, and are treated well. The recent Diane Sawyer interview with Bruce Jenner is a perfect example of freedom from below being crucial in making societal change today. Bruce explained how he is going to use his exposure to media to his advantage by being a champion for the cause of other transgender people everywhere. His support of this cause and broadcast on a major news network will get the attention of the government and policy makers, and ensure that the issues that transgender people face will be focused on much more.

The Bruce Jenner interview: http://abc.go.com/shows/2020/listing/2015-04/24-bruce-jenner---the-interview