robert gould shaw, a massachusetts regimental officer, he s coming face-to-face with the human cost of war, and so he s wondering, what s the point of all this carnage?oint of all this suffering? are these men gonna die in vain? mutilating corpses, shaw? mothers need something to remember their sons by. what the hell are they all dying for? these deaths should mean something more. they have to. people like shaw begin to think, well, this war, in order to be meaningful, in order to be something that was worth fighting, has to achieve fundamental change in american society, and that fundamental change would be the destruction of slavery. all summer long, confederate general robert e. lee has chased the yankees out of the south. dispatch these orders promptly.
sweet land of liberty land where my fathers died land of the pilgrims pride from every mountainside let freedom ring a political conflict cracks the foundation of a fragile union dividing a young nation over the issues of freedom, slavery and equality. in a brutal battle of attrition, heroes will rise, cities will fall, and the blood of thousands
robert e. lee s confederates are more than willing to die for the rebel cause. prepare for the enemy advance. but union troops are beginning to lose faith. despite pressure from his own generals to emancipate the slaves, lincoln still refuses to act forcing frederick douglass to escalate his war of words. president lincoln has repeatedly interfered with the anti-slavery policies of some of his most earnest and reliable generals. but he can never put back the scattered pieces of this union into the shape and form of which they stood before this slave-holding rebellion. douglass built up a rage against those who would defend and spread the atrocities of slavery. but he feels the pressure. the pressure to be an example of peaceful protest. douglass works hard to reconcile the duality. so he transforms his rage into prose, and uses his sharp intellect and eloquent speech to delive president era can gentlemen, can you not see
fight, and create the new america frederick douglass has hoped for. there is a great deal of excitement for the issuing of the emancipation proclamation. saving the union and emancipation are one. it s this game-changing event. but there was a belief that lincoln might not do it. father. what if lincoln doesn t sign the proclamation? then we keep fighting. haven t come this far i haven t come this far to watch this nation fall back into a slave-owning power. the emancipation proclamation promises to make the war a fight to eradicate slavery. but that s a war frederick douglass has been waging his entire life. i left my chains and succeeded in reaching new york. now, how i did so, i must leave unexplained. but there i was,
our nation is on fire? and the only choice is abolition or destruction. the only choice we have left is abolition or destruction. we must abolish slavery or abandon this union. we must abolish slavery. [ echoing ] do you hear me? do you hear me? when you start reading douglass in the newspaper, you see that he is now endorsing physical force and political activity. for douglass, blacks needed to fight for themselves. fighting for their own freedom would send a message not only to the nation but to the world. the time for action is now. so what say you? douglass hopes for emancipation are slipping away because the north isn t just losing the war it s also being torn apart from the inside by racial animosity.