Imagine your trapped in a shed with no roof and kept hidden, unable to leave to the outside….That you’re cold, hungry, and have been beaten half to death. That you’re unable to move as your masters’ shadow creeps over you, beckoning your death. He cracks his whip at your feet giving you a burning sensation that makes you shake in fear. You run out of the shed and into the field where you start to work once again in pain. Abraham Lincoln reiterates, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” Now imagine you’re the master in the same situation.  You walk into a cold dark shed with no roof and little blankets. There are seven slaves in the far right corner. You walk over to them with your whip in hand. The slaves fear you as you raise it yelling and screaming at them to get up and work even though most of them are sick and dyeing. Some of them scream and do as you say out of fear; others walk slower coughing and trembling. Would you really do this? Or would you let them have their freedom?

I believe everyone should have the right to do as they please, just as the emancipation proclamation proclaims.  It reads that even though Abraham Lincoln hated the mere thought of slavery, he believed the constitution did not give him enough authority to put a complete end to it. Even through this, he still helped the nation get a step closer to abolishing slavery forever. It shouldn’t have been this way. Slavery is not something to take lightly.

On April 6th, 1859, Abraham Lincoln wrote this quote in a letter to Henry Pierce. Henry Pierce was part of the House of Representatives and he invited Abraham Lincoln to celebrate in Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, but Abe declined. He decided “All honor to Jefferson--to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.” What this says to me is that he was not going to stand for a person who did nothing with our independence.

I feel as if my quote on slavery has a greater value than most things. That it has the sense of patriotism and liberty. During that time period everyone was fighting for their own independence. They didn’t want to be ruled by a master, then wanted to be free. They tried everything but got punished for what they believed in. Does that seem right? If you were ruled by someone that tortured you into working for them without pay, you would be pretty miserable. Even though now we are ruled by a government, we have more rights than we can imagine. We have the ability to learn, work and speak out. Back then there were rules you had to follow in order to not be executed.

Slavery is a big problem, even today. There are over 11 billion illegal immigrants in the U.S. alone most of them are children that have been sold to other families. My quotes’ purpose was to put and end to this tragedy for good. It did a lot but you can do a lot to. Help end slavery and save illegal immigrants lives.