Freedom From Above or Below

In this unit, our class dove into the topic of whether or not freedom of slavery come from influential forces from above (Caucasian ethnicity) or below (African American ethnicity). During class, we broke up into several smaller groups in order to identify and analyze certain documents that took place in the middle-late 1800's. Once our groups concluded analyzing the documents, we continued to further analyze these different events as a class by watching videos and taking notes in three major categories. There were a few categories that the responses fell into: the goals of war, the position of freeing slaves, and evidence of Lincoln's personal feelings of slavery. 

The image our class analyzed when discussing whether or not freedom comes from above or below

The most common thought throughout society is that Lincoln did the majority of freeing throughout the middle-late 1800's. This is partly true, however, the enslaved people held their own when it came to freedom themselves. For example, our class analyzed the document "Enslaved
People Force the Issue", in which slaves were proactive about forcing the Union soldiers attention upon them. They did this by flooding the town with fugitive people and causing a ruckus, thus bringing great anxiety upon the soldiers. The soldiers eventually brought this problem to higher power, which resulted in the fugitives protection using a system of guards and watchmen. This effectively shows the actions of the fugitives to gain the attention of the soldiers, further proving that there was freedom from below. On the contrary, this action could also be seen as freedom from above in the sense that

In my opinion, freedom can come from either above or below depending on the situation. For example, choosing to play a college sport for a team of your liking  typically requires "freedom from below" in the sense that one must be proactive in getting the desired team's attention. They must reach out, send highlight films, emails, and notes to grab the attention of coaches or scouts from that school. In contrast, freedom can come from above in the sense that the colleges can pick and choose who they want as a player or a student. The colleges, in the end, being the higher power, make the final choice as to whether or not a player will come and play for their team.

Freedom From Above or Below Document  

Civil War Scavenger Hunt

In this section of the unit, our class was discussing 2 essential questions which asked about which sides dominated which theaters: "Who was the ultimate doctor in each of the theaters of war: East, West, or Naval?" and "What are some commonalities you can identify in the reasons for the results of the battles?" To help in our understanding of these questions, our class broke up into small groups and set off on a scavenger hunt around our school to understand who won which wars, as well as what gave the winning side the advantage in doing so. 

Battle of Gettysburg

Battle of Shiloh

The victors throughout each battle in the civil war varies depending on the theatre. For example, the Union mostly dominated the western theatre while the confederacy mainly dominated the eastern theatre. The naval theatre went back and forth, but in the end, the union came out on top. Reasons for these victories and losses varied from battle to battle. For example, the confederates won the Battle of Good Harbor (east) simply because they focused in on causing as much damage as they possibly could in a short amount of time. According to the information we found during the scavenger hunt, the confederates frontal assault caused at least 7000 casualties within an hour. On the contrary, the Union army outnumbered and outgunned the Confederate army by a large margin during the Battle of Fort Henry (naval) They caused enough damage to make the Confederates surrender.

In my opinion, I believe that each army did conquer their respective theaters. However, near the end of these streaks of wars, union began to take the upper hand when it came to winning battles in the eastern theaters. Otherwise, I feel like the class as a whole correctly determined which army conquered which theatre. I trust most all of the sources as we were required to use primary sources when finding the results of battles we were given. All In all, I feel this was the correct approach and was a fun twist on a way to learn about several battles during the civil war.

Class Responses to the essential questions