African Americans During The Civil War

At first, African American slave labor was not commonly used considering there were many white indentured servants at the time and they were beginning their attempts to enslave the Native Americana. Within a few centuries, however, African American slaves were easier to control and did not need to be paid to work or, because they could not talk back against white men, needed to be treated with respect. According to A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, “by 1700, in Virginia, there were 6,000 slaves, one-twelfth of the population. By 1763, there were 170,000 slaves, about half the population” (32). The use of African slave labor became more common and was mostly used in the South, and was only used in the south after the Missouri Compromise in 1820 (Kennedy, et al, 247). Even though they were a large portion of the colonial population, African American slaves were seen only as property or half human, and were consequently given very few rights, even if they were free and no longer slaves.

African Americans have fought a great battle to become a part of society in America. Since being taken from African as slaves in the 1600’s there has been a continuous battle for equality since. Since the end of slavery Black Americans have had many accomplishments along with hardships. In this paper I will discuss some of the Major events in African American history beginning with the end of slavery which has lead to the America we know today.

Have you ever fought for something you believed in? There was a war where many states that were fighting for their rights and what they believed in. They all had different opinions, but many states fought together to become stronger. Texans fought in the Civil War because their love for Texas and their family, for states’ rights, and to protect the slaves.

The institution of slavery, which was a system in which African Americans were forced into labor and had their freedom restricted, was seen as a positive necessity to Southerners. Slavery was seen as though it was essential, it was seen as an entity they could not live without. The Peculiar Institution began in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia when the colonist first began arriving in Colonial America. Slavery was first introduced when the colonists, who happened to be privileged in the sense that they never did their own work, needed to get their work done. Since no one wanted to do the work such as building houses, farming

Many people believe that The Civil War is just history, but we are actually still fighting with the political and social issues that people at that time faced. Abraham Lincoln used The Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves in confederate territory, yet thought “that the only solution [to end slavery] would be a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery.” (pg.368, The Americans) Therefore, the Thirteenth Amendment was born and although slavery has gotten better politically, there are still problems with equal rights and discrimination towards people of color. The stigma towards people of color is evident in the world currently, but also while broadening the topic, equal rights for all genders, races, religions, etc, still need improvement

African-Americans served in the Civil War on both the Union and Confederate sides. In the Union Army, over 179,000 African American men served in over 160 units. More served with both the Union and Confederate units. This includes both northern free African Americans and runaway slaves from the South who enlisted to fight. By 1865, the South allowed slaves to enlist, but very few actually did. During the Civil War, blacks were treated like trash compared to the white troops. White troops got better pay; to be exact they were paid three dollars and fifty cents more than black troops (Estell 2). Woodlin said African American Soldiers were being paid less than White Soldiers. African-American soldiers fought and died in major Civil War actions in the future and received not only bad treatment but were looked down upon. Even though African American Soldiers during the Civil War worked hard and preserved, they were not treated equal to white soldiers. The outbreak of the Civil War cost the United States a near fatal blow (Estell 2). When the war broke out the U.S. was not prepared and this almost cost them. The Confederate leader, Robert E. Lee, led the West Point trained; United States Army Officer Corps to the Confederacy (Estell 2). Robert E. Lee led trained soldiers to fight for the Confederacy. At the outset of the Civil War, free black men in several Northern offered their services to the Union

Antebellum America was the time period before the Civil War, so it was a constant battle between African Americans and Whites. Antebellum time period focus on the differences between people in the south and the north. People who wanted slavery to continue, because it was profitable and people who wanted it to end. More simply, whites in the south did not want slavery to end, because it was a business that allowed them to make money off of other people 's labor. While people in the north were more open to allow African Americans have more freedom. Namely, not trying to control African Americans with slavery, but allowing them to find work and become independent. Therefore, African Americans in the north and south, had similarities and differences, but both groups constantly fought for equality and freedom.

The foundation for black participation in the Civil War began more than a hundred years before the outbreak of the war. Blacks in America had been in bondage since early colonial times. In 1776, when Jefferson proclaimed mankind 's inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the institution of slavery had become firmly established in America. Blacks worked in the tobacco fields of Virginia, in the rice fields of South Carolina, and toiled in small farms and shops in the North. Foner and Mahoney report in A House Divided, America in the Age of Lincoln that, "In 1776, slaves composed forty percent of the population of the colonies from Maryland south to Georgia, but well below ten percent in the colonies to the

The African American regiment and their captain set off for Beaufort, South Carolina on May 28, 1863 (1). They were to attack Fort Wagner, which was a vital key to Charleston. They only way to storm the fort was to go through loads and loads of Confederates. The sheer size of the Confederates to the Fifty- Fourth regiment was an obstacle in itself. The regiment knew the amount of obstacles they would have to overcome to achieve a victory and yet they

Freedom meant escaping the numerous injustices of slavery. Blacks after the Civil War enjoyed many privileges that their predecessors could only dream of. The most important was that slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth amendment and so blacks were no longer property but free people. They could move where they wanted to and have control over their own lives. The fourteenth gave them Citizenship and the Fifteenth promised them the right to vote. Also,The Freedman's Bureau was set up to help blacks who were left homeless and jobless after the Civil War. Although black slaves were freed, they faced many difficulties. However, blacks experienced severe restrictions on their freedom after the Civil War.

From the beginning of the war, African Americans engaged in the fighting, although Lincoln at refused to officially employ them in the Union army. By 1962 concluded that the use of African American soldiers was a necessity. An estimated 180,000 black soldiers served in the Union army and another 20,000 served in its navy; however, not all of those African Americans who tend records of how many black soldiers fought for the south, but their numbers grew as white southerners became more desperate. Lincoln faced a dilemma in that if he issued an order of universal emancipation, as the abolitionists encouraged him to do, he risked alienating the border remained supportive of the Union: these were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.

The history of slavery began in 1619, when in the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, landed a Dutch ship, "White Lion", with twenty enslaved Africans who were captured in a battle with a Spanish ship. The Dutch ship was damaged, so people needed to stay and repair their ship. They also needed food and supplies. Therefore, they decided to sell Africans to the colonists as indentured slaves. In that time began a new period in colonist 's life called The Great Migration, which was a period when the population of the colony grew from 450 to 4000 people. But people faced some problems like disease, malnutrition and war with Indians. Colonies desperately needed laborers. The solution of this problem was indentured servants. Indentured servants are people, who work for food, clothes and shelter, for certain period of time. Indentured servants were not only Africans, a large majority of them were also Germans, Irish, Scottish and English. The laborers were very important, because colonists needed gather crop, build buildings and do other work to make live colonists more easy. (History of slavery in America)

Slavery in America is dated back to the 1600’s during the slave trade. During the slave trade 450,000 Africans were brought to the United States of America. Slaves were sold to farmers and plantation owners who needed cheap labor. The slaves were sold as low as eighteen dollars to as much as a few thousand dollars. The slaves were brought to America perform cheap labor and to also work as servants in homes of the master.

African slavery started at the 16th century and ended in the 19th century. Slave life was the most brutal and disrespected period of America. When Africans first stepped foot on the slave ships coming to America things were bad. The white man beat, raped, and treated the black men like animals. Life on the plantation wasn’t any better. The slaves didn’t work for a paycheck, they worked for their lives. The black man had difficulties adapting to the environment, learning another language, and being a monogamous.

In the 1600s enslaved Africans became a cheaper and more accessible production tool than indentured servants. The Diaspora, the scattering of peoples from their ancestral homeland, of enslaved Africans expanded vastly throughout America and the world. Historians estimated that six to seven million enslaved Africans were plucked from their homeland in the 1700s. The African continent was deprived and exploited for over three- hundred due to the lack of