Freedom from Above or Below?

The essential questions we were told to answer were "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?" We saw an image that represented Freedom from above called "Freedom of the Slaves". After this, we looked at some documents and analyzed them to find out what the goal for the war really was. Lastly, we watched a video and answer two questions from the video. The questions were, "How did fugitive slaves influence the government’s and Lincoln’s actions on slavery?"and, "What did Lincoln claim that he did not do more for abolition at this point in the war?"  To answer these questions, we needed to find out what the terms "Freedom from above" and "Freedom from below" actually meant, and what the differences were in them. Freedom from above occurs when people with more power and influence than the slaves help the enslaved people gain their freedom. Freedom from below is when the slaves themselves work together to make a difference on their enslavement without the help of government officials or people with influence. When it comes to Abraham Lincoln's place in the freedom of slaves, he certainly had an effect, but was it big enough to be considered freedom from above? During the Emancipation Proclamation he stated that all men are created equal in the following quote. "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." The idea of Freedom from below was a large part of what the Civil war all about, and both document X and document Y are examples of it. Document X was a letter from General Burnside to the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton which said, "They seemed to be wild with excitement and delight— they are now a source of very great anxiety to us; the city is being overrun with fugitives from surrounding towns and plantations— Two have reported themselves who have been in the swamps for five years." This quote accurately shows freedom from below because the slaves were making themselves be heard by purposely making a nuisance of themselves to the Union army.  Slaves from the plantation of Confederate President Jefferson Davis arrive at Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi from 1863. This image is powerful because it shows slaves taking action and trying to make a difference by working as a unit. In my opinion there was more freedom from above because it was more common but I do think that Lincolns decisions were influenced by the actions of the enslaved people. The following is an image of slaves trying to take action and make themselves known to others, which is powerful because it is one of the first times in America that slaves have made a difference in the lives of white men.

1860 Election

In the next unit on the Civil War, we learned about the election of 1860, and were told to answer the question of,"How were the results of the Election of 1860 representative of the deep divisions over slavery?"  In class, we watched a crash course video on it, and learned that people had many different viewpoints on it.  Abraham Lincoln was a republican who was opposed to slavery, and felt that it should be contained and kept within control.  Stephen A. Douglass was a Northern democrat who believed that the expansion of slavery be decided by popular soverignity.  John Bell, a Constitutional Unionist, wasnted to preserve the Constitution, including slavery.  John C. Breckenridge was a southern democrat who said that all slaves were inferior to whites and that slavery should not be limited anywhere in the U.S. Breckenridge was expected to win the Southern states because slavery was the most popular in the South, and Lincoln was expected to win the North because they were already against slavery, but Lincoln ended up winning the election of 1860. We then analyzed five photographs and used educreations to create a video explaining the election of 1860.

Link to Video Here!

Battles Scavenger Hunt

Who was the ultimate victor in each of the theaters of war: East, West, Naval?
What are some commonalities you can identify in the reasons for the results of the battles? 

In order to learn who was prominent in specific regions of the U.S. During the civil war, we took a look at specific battles that occurred in the eastern region, western region, and in naval battles through a scavenger hunt around the school.  We had to create a google doc. on one of these battles, and write about it, but I wasn't here for this part so I only experienced looking for the QR codes that people posted that have the link to their battle.  Each person in the class has to find the persons number ahead of them and tell them where they were going to hide their QR code, and they wrote it down in their google doc.  After learning about these battles, we were told to answer the essential question of "Who was the ultimate victor in each of the theaters of war:East West, Naval?" And our class created a Padlet (see below)  that had each of our discoveries and interpretations for each theaters dominator.

Created with Padlet

To answer the question on who the dominators were for each theater,  the Union primarily dominated he Western and Naval battles, while the Confederates won a majority of the battles in the east up until the end of the war.  Examples of the Union being victorious in the west were the battles of  Shiloh and Fort Donelson, and naval battles include the battle of Baton Rouge and Vicksburg.  The confederacy won battles in the East such as the battles of Fredericksburg and Bull Run.  Some commonalities that I saw when looking at the results of the battles were things like one side being armed significantly more than the other side, and also the winning side commonly trapped the losers in a situation where they could not escape and were pinned down unable to do anything.  Most of the victories also resulted in surrenders as well, which proves that the battles were completely one-sided fights, and the losers were unprepared.  Also, the attackers one almost every time in these battles, which shows that most of the defenders were unprepared and unready for the attacks.  

Infographic Post

Advantages and Strategies That the North Had That Lead to Their Victory in the Civil | Create infographics

Infographic Original Link

The Elephant in the Room

In our last lesson of the causes of the civil war, we discussed a huge topic in America that can be called an "elephant in the room" which basically is about a topic that is large enough to matter but is ignored, and this lesson had to do with slavery in the early 19th century. We were told to answer the following question;"How do we know the debate over slavery was the 'elephant in the room' for American politics in the early 19th century?" In order to better understand this “elephant” we first needed to learn about events that contributed to it, one of which was the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise took place in 1820, and it split apart the 22 states; eleven being slave controlled states and 11 being free states, which gave both sides the same number of votes in the Senate. This Missouri Compromise stated that all states above the 36 degrees latitude line would be free states if they were to form in the future. Sometime around 1849, there was a huge gold rush in California, which caused people to flock there, and eventually it gained enough people to request stateship as a free state In 1950.  However, this caused an unbalance in the senate. so a man named Henry Clay proposed what was called a 5-part compromise. In order to understand what this compromise was, we looked at the article "The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act". This article listed the five parts to the compromise as the following.  The first part of it was that Texas would claim the disputed land and be granted 10 million dollars that it could use to pay off its debt to Mexico, which appeased pro-slavery people because it was further south, leaving a greater chance that it could become a slave state. The second part was the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would be categorized, but their standing point would be determined by popular vote, and  the decision would be made by the people when they applied for statehood. The third part of the compromise was that slave trading would be removed in the District of Columbia, and even though slavery would still be allowed it satisfied anti-slavery advocates. The fourth part of the compromise was the agreement that California would be admitted as a free state.This, however, imbalanced the senate voting system, so the the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, which required citizens to help recover slaves that fled north, and it denied a fugitive's right to trial.  Not only that, but it made many things easier for slaveowners. Eventually, we were split into groups in order to construct a timeline of all of the events.  The debate over slavery was the 'elephant in the room' because all of the topics discussed had to do with balancing out state power and nothing to do with the s. Slavery was obviously the elephant in the room, and it needed to be a bigger deal to politicians.However, these aren’t the only things that make slavery “the elephant in the room.”

A Timeline of the Elephant in the Room

On the Timeline, we also uncovered more events, such as the Gadsden Purchase, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas, The Caning of Charles Sumner, The Dred Scott Decision, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and John Brown's Raid. These events further prove that slavery was the elephant in the room, and was clearly a thing that was an obvious issue but was not discussed enough. The Kansas-Nebraska Act took place in 1854 and made the Missouri Compromise void, meaning that there could be slave states above the previously set line. This act made it easier for southerners to expand slavery northward, which allowed for them to grow more cotton and have more plantations. Another important event was Bleeding Kansas, started by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which resulted in a lot of violence and attacks between pro-slavery and anti-slavery advocates. Not only that, but the Caning of Charles Sumner proved that even the most civilized people would fight over slavery laws. In 1856, Senator Charles Sumner delivered a speech called The Crime Against Kansas,and he attacked southerners in this speech for forcing slavery on territories. He also made bold insults against a Senator and a member of the House of Representatives and this senators nephew  was angered by Sumner's remarks and was determined to defend the honor of the south. Two days after Sumner's speech, Brooks approached Sumner at his Senate desk and violently assaulted him with his cane. People across the south voiced their support for Brook, but Northerners were furious. Another event that proved slavery was the elephant in the room was the Dred Scott Decision in 1857. Dred Scott was an enslaved black man living in Missouri. He filed a suit against his owner, and argued that he and his wife were free because they had once lived in states where slavery was illegal, but the Supreme Court ruled against the Scotts, and there were 3 outcomes from the Dred Scott Decision. Slaves, because they were not citizens, were denied the right to sue in court. Enslaved people could not win freedom just by living in a free territory or state, and the Missouri Compromise ruled unconstitutional and all territories were open to slavery, which was a step in the wrong direction for the abolishment of slavery. What they were doing made no sense because the Missouri Compromise in 1820 was made to keep certain states free, but they got rid of the compromise in 1854 with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and then decided that  all territories were open to slavery, which shows that people only cared about political arguments and not about the slaves themselves, further proving that slavery was infact the “elephant in the room”

A Before and After Map of the Kansas-Nebraska Act’s effects.

Slavery Entrenched

Since the foundation of the United States, many problems have arisen in its society, such as temperance and domestic violence, but one of the biggest problems that Americans ever faced was slavery.  In class, we had to answer the following questions,”How did slavery become economically entrenched in American Society by the early 19th century?”,” How does a system of slavery based on race affect  human dignity?” and lastly, “What human characteristics does such a system tend  to ignore?”  Slavery became entrenched in american society because slavery was mainly used to harvest crops from the south, primarily cotton.  This cotton would then be transported into the northern states, where there were many manufactories for it to be refined and sold for a higher price.  Slavery became such an essential part of life particularly for the southerners, as it generated great wealth for them at little to no cost.  During this time period, people thought that slavery was declining, as shown in this article on cotton and slavery.  However, this was completely the opposite once the cotton gin was developed, and slave population soared, and the average price for slaves was estimated to have tripled between 1794 and 1825 because plantations could now process cotton dozens of times faster.  From 1800 until 1820,  the slave population in america rose to an estimated 62 percent!  In order to better understand this trend of population growth, we took a look at an interactive map that shows the increase of slavery in specific areas throughout that time period, primarily in the southern states.

A Picture before the cotton gin was developed.  

a picture after the cotton gin was developed.

After we learned about the growth of slavery and its causes, we decided to learn about how a system of slavery based on race affect human dignity, and what human characteristics does such a system tend to ignore?  In order to answer this question, we were then given a person who fought for or against slavery and learned about their actions, and I was assigned John Brown. John Brown was an abolitionist against slavery who murdered slave owners in response to their actions, and he did not believe that slavery could be solved peacefully, and pushed to arm slaves and cause rebellions.  His plan to arm these slaves was by attacking a southern military base in order to steal tons of muskets and ammunition, but his plan didn’t turn out so well and he and his men were either killed or captured and John ended up being  hung for his crimes. As a result of Johns failed attempt at starting a rebellion, he did became a martyr for the abolitionist’s cause.  Although his actions may have seemed completely idiotic, he helped to  inspire northerners to fight for the antislavery cause and helped to grow tensions that eventually lead up to the Civil War.

Finally, we were shown a movie called A Prince Among Slaves. In this video a young African prince named Abdulrahman is captured and is sold as a slave. Abdulrahman is treated cruelly, and is abused by his captors, whom completely ignore his royalty. Through his life, he proved himself to be a leader among slaves, and also saved the life of a white doctor who later tries multiple times to free him from his slavery.  After the government hears about him being a prince, they decide to set him free because they believe that he is Moroccan, who was one of America’s closest allies. The life of Abdulrahman shows the extreme dehumanization that slavery causes,which is shown through the course of his life. In the beginning, Abdulrahman was born to be a king but instead was forced into slavery for a majority of his life, and he never returned to his homeland.  Slavery is formed in such a way that character and individualism are ignored, and instead race is used to show whether or not somebody is worthy of respect, and was one of America’s greatest obstacles in its society.  

Women's Reform

In class the other day, we were asked the question of how American society reacted to womens' push for equality in the 29th century, and does 21st century America still treat women differently?
In order to better explore this belief, we looked into many reports of women fighting for their rights and equality, and discovered that many people today believe that by ignoring women's equality the issue would simply go away, but obviously they were wrong.  In July of 1848, the Senecca Falls convention was held with over 30 men and women pushing for gender equality, and in the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, women speak about how they have been oppressed by men and they call for change and equality for all.  I feel like in today's society, people think of both genders as being equal, yet women are still opressed when it comes to their abilities and expectations in life.