Title: The Civil War and Ideas of Freedom | Ultius
Headings: The Civil War and Ideas of Freedom
The Civil War and Ideas of Freedom
The Civil War and path to freedom
Death toll of the Civil War
Freedom as an idea during the Civil War
Looking back at post-Civil War freedoms and success gained
Conclusion
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Content: In the years following the Civil War, former slaves and their white allies, North and South, would seek to redefine the meaning and boundaries of American freedom" (586). In many ways, the war was based on what was previously an elusive definition of freedom in which the war was waged to figure out a precise definition. Both Union and Confederate generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee can be used as microcosms to understand the greater sentiment among these opposing men and their armies. For General Grant, maintaining the Union was the ultimate goal of the war. This meant that for Grant, the freedom gained independence from Great Britain was to be upheld by adhering to the original vision of the founding fathers. Both men believed in their nation and fiercely supported the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Freedom was an essential American concept at the core of the nation’s value system that progressively leaning northerners associated with abolishing slavery. For men like General Lee, the concept of freedom seems more complex. It can be argued that he wanted freedom for the Confederacy from the Union and freedom from laws against slavery. It is known that Lee was very traditional in both his upbringing and his military tactics;