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African Americans in the Civil War

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Roman Robinson
Kristen Anderson
HIST 3060 February 25, 13

African Americans and the Civil War
The role African Americans played in the outcome, and the road to the outcome of the Civil War was immense. The fact that the south had slaves and the north did not played an enormous role in the issues. The north wanted to abolish slavery, and the south did not and after the war started this became one of the main reasons for the Civil War. Since most African Americans could not read or write, this made them an easy target, for slavery, against the dominant white man. Once the slaves got to America they started to realize how much trouble they were actually in. The north and the south had a problem brewing, and that was due to the …show more content…

This Union in particular contributed to the war efforts of the North and showed a new found power among blacks. The regiment started when John Andrew sent a request to the secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, to create a volunteer regiment of African Americans (3). African Americans from all over the country joined. To help recruit even further they called for help from African American leaders like, Frederick Douglas and William Wells Brown. In just two months over one thousand African Americans, one from at least every state, had enlisted in the regiment. The leader of the regiment would not be black though, they wanted the superior officer to have some certain credentials. The job description posted read:
“Young Man of Military Experience
Of firm antislavery principles, ambitious,
Superior to the vulgar contempt of color
Having Faith in the capacity of colored men for military purpose” (2)
The man picked for the job was Robert Shaw.

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

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