At the end of the Civil War there was one unanswered question, who really had freed the slaves? Some say it was the Union because the slaves were able to take refuge in their camps, but others say that the slaves are the ones who took the step to free themselves.
When the Union invaded the South they had were not planning on picking up slaves along the way. But by and by slaves started coming out of hiding to meet up with the Union troops. They would wait in abandoned confederate towns for the Union troops and while the slaves were there they raided there former masters house for jewelry, money, clothes. The slaves felt that it was there right to do it because there owners bought that with the money the slaves had earned them. In a way this was the slaves push for freedom, being abandoned by and looting their masters and showing up in Union camps, they were forcing Lincolns hand to declare there freedom. All in all that is why so many think the freedom of slaves came from below.
Others think that freedom came from above for the slaves. One reason many people believe that power came from above was the fact that it was actually the Union who made the difference. Although the African Americans made the first push by showing up at the Union camps, it was the governments response to that, that truly set them free. So in turn really freedom came from below and above, because if it weren't the slaves showing up at Union camps, Lincoln might have never declared the slaves of the Confederacy free.
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