Oh Freedom: Poem Analysis

Oh Freedom, Oh Freedom, Oh Freedom, Freedom is coming, oh yes I know! These lyrics belong to the South African song, “Freedom is Coming” which was sung to rejoice liberation in South Africa. The power of freedom is something people have always fought for and celebrated. The word holds different meanings and connotations in different contexts. “Free”, in terms of this paper, means a person who is not property of a slave owner. Rather than focusing on the legislative emancipation of slaves, it is crucial to identify who inspired the government to make new laws against the institution of slavery. With this in mind, due to their dedication to fighting for the Union cause and their ability to recognize the weakness of slave owners and use it to their advantage, slaves transformed the perspectives of Union soldiers on slavery and freed themselves. It could be argued that President Abraham Lincoln freed the …show more content…
“There they stood, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, and after a few rounds of firing, each man’s visage was so blackened by the smoke of powder, that Lambert and Latham had little to boast of on the score of color.” This quote from the Liberator emphasized that, in war, the color of a man’s skin was not determinative of his valor and that black soldiers were equally useful in battle as white soldiers. Slaves who fought fiercely in battle proved this. There were some former slaves who were seen as heroic, such as Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman cured Union soldiers and contrabands of disease and sickness and gathered information from slaves in the South. Sarah Bradford commemorated Harriet Tubman by describing her as a “fearless woman.” Because of slaves’ bravery and devotion to the Union war, they not only freed themselves by risking their lives to escape slavery but also changed the perspectives of Union soldiers by proving to be assets and