DOWNS, SICK FROM FREEDOM. 2
In most instances, historians have perceived the Emancipation Proclamation as a political and
military strategy that sought to extend equity to all individuals occupying America as proposed
by Jefferson. In this view, Lincoln expressed political brilliance in dealing with unity of the
Union and at the same addressing emancipation, and this political brilliance has been the subject
of many scholars in evaluating impacts of the Civil War. However, this is not the case of
historian Jim Downs. In his work Sick from Freedom, he takes the less trodden road and focuses
on the medical history of African Americans during the civil war and reconstruction period.
Rather than seeing emancipation as a legal or political event, he perceives it as a liberation that
exposed former slaves to suffering and loss of health. To him, emancipation, health and diseases
have an intractable relationship.
By presenting emancipation as a series of actions, Downs establishes an unforeseen link
between health issues that were experienced by freed people and actions and policies of the
federal government through the Medical Division of the Freedmen’s Bureau. He argues that
emancipation is not limited to the executive order issued in 1863 but a process that started with
the seizure of slaves, to considering of their plight by Lincoln, and finally to constitutional
amendments and civil rights acts during reconstruction. The political and legal events in the
process sought to negotiate and transform identities of the freed people. However, the medical
crises and poor handling of the health problems experienced by freed slaves by federal
government ensured they did not enjoy a and experience independence and freedom. During the
war, the freed people sought refuge in the Union Camps, which in most instances had poor
amenities. In addition, non-laboring ex-slaves were expelled from the camp, and thus had to fend
for themselves and hunger and communicable diseases a common thing. Small pox claimed
thousands of life, and this situation was worsened by poor sanitation. The biological crisis was
