Civil Conflicts and the Lives of African-Americans

The United States was changing in the 1800’s. Many settlers moved to the west, populating the plains. For many Americans, the movement westward brought new economic opportunities, but for others it meant conflict and a way of life.

The American territory was sprawling across the Mississippi River and into new Native American territory. The Great Plains and far West were occupied by both Indians and Hispanics whose custom and way of live were distinct in language religion and kinship and governance. The white settlers and hunters were a threat to the resources in which they used for survival.

The American Civil War was ending and African Americans gained freedom, freedom from slavery and to live life as common folk. However, being set ‘free’ was not enough for African Americans to really experience what freedom was really like. Respect and rights of citizenship are by themselves weak in the ability to survive without also obtaining economic power. This paper will examine the progression of African Americans after the Civil War of 1865.

The Civil War was one of America’s most brutal battles in history. Majority of which being white, male soldiers. Over the years, many historians have argued the actual involvement of blacks during the civil war era. Many claiming that they were doing nothing more than assisting the actual, white soldiers in combat such as, nurses, and wagon drivers, not actually picking up the gun and shooting alongside in battle. Most people look over the fact that almost ten percent, or 180,000, of the Union army were African American. Though a small fraction of the amount of total soldiers during the war, their involvement is still significant. These soldiers recruited and voluntarily, committing the same acts of bravery of any Caucasian solider, due to the prejudice against them, they were pushed to the back burner and treated with disrespect, virtually diminishing their extensive courageous acts. Nevertheless these soldiers made an impact in world changing war.

In what ways did African Americans shape the course and consequences of the Civil War?

With the end of the Civil War, a new era of change began. Slavery was abolished and blacks were able to exercise the same rights as the white man, which accounted for the accurate population count of the United States. The promise of a new beginning and individualism promoted the expansion of the frontier. By 1890 the frontier was fully settled and it closed. Although the Western frontier was explosively settled in a short decade, American Indian settlement, transportation methods and expansion, and availability of desirable natural resources determined the success and sustenance of settlers.

Though these forced migrations resulted in many deaths and the treaties greatly disadvantaged the Indians, it was a major benefit for the common American man. Land speculators promoted the Midwest, and eastern farmers settled in the west to seek new fertile lands. New industries, like those of lumbering and mining, sprang up. Steamboats turned river cities into quickly growing

With the various ways slavery was spread throughout the geography of the United States, these variations formed different cultures and conflicting laws on slavery. Due to inconsistent systems of slavery, it resulted in the Civil War, dividing the North and the South over the issues of slavery. In the end of the Civil War, many individuals with every sense of positive intentions gave opportunities and support to freed slaves developing into beneficial members for the nation. The United States came together as a nation to solve the issues of slavery, freedom, and the reorganization problems particular to African Americans. It is seen throughout our history all efforts to solve these issues but sadly African Americans still face many of the these problems today. These problems and issues of the 20th century needed to be solved by the leadership of African Americans, for their African American community. W.E.B Du Bois is a tremendous example of an African American leader for what was best for the United States at that time.

About 180,000 African American people comprised 163 units that served in the Union Army, during the time of the Civil War, and many more African American people had served in the Union Navy. Both the free African-Americans and the runaway slaves had joined the fight. On the date of July 17, in the year of 1862, the U. S. Congress had passed two very important acts that would allow the enlistment of many African Americans, but the official enrollment had occurred only after the September, 1862, issuance of the, Emancipation Proclamation. In general, most white soldiers and officers, had believed that most of the black men, who had served in the Civil War, lacked the courage, and the will to fight

The Native Americans lost most of their land from 1850-1870. (Doc 1) In 1868, a discussion took place at Fort Laramie, which is now present day Wyoming. This resulted in a treaty which gave tribes an abnormally large reservation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. (Doc 3) Soon after, white prospectors found gold in the Black Hills.

As the population of the West soared and the prospects of statehood for western territories appeared clearer and clearer, the nation battled over the future of slavery in the West. This battle was one reason for the Civil War, which slowed the acceleration of expansion. However, the last three decades of the nineteenth century saw the return of accelerating expansion due to the successful struggle to contain the Plains Indians in reservations, and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. By the

After the Civil War, thousands of Americans poured into the Great Plains on a collision course with western Indian tribes. Homesteaders, ranchers, and miners encroached on Indian lands and threatened native game and ways of life. They called on the U.S. Army to crush Indian resistance and confine tribes to government controlled reservations.

These conflicts had great effects across America, many of which were detrimental to the American Indians who were confined to reservations and killed at high rates. The conflicts gave rise to reformers’ new idea of assimilation which would essentially destroy American Indians traditional ways of life. Before the Civil War began, Congress reserved the Great Plains for American Indians since many Americans believed that the prairie could not be used for farming or anything of economic value. However, during the mid-1800s many Americans decided to move westward and settle the Great Plains. This was partially due to popular cultural beliefs such as Manifest Destiny, the belief that settlement across all of America was justifiable and inevitable.

The Civil War was a massive milestone in American History. This war started in 1861 and lasted four years. It was between the Union and the Confederacy over their differences and problems they created. The consequences the nation faced due to the demolition of the Civil War, was terrifying. Then the Reconstruction era was born to restore, reinstate, and unite the United States as one. During the Reconstruction of 1865 through 1867, African American lives were impacted economically because they were given few rights and their resources were limited, socially because they wanted to be given an ordinary lifestyle, and politically because they weren’t allowed to be joined or linked with the government.

At the start of the 1830s Native Americans vastly populated the areas of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida.1 Although, because of Americans wanting the land for their own crop growing and Jackson idea of a perfect nation thousands of Indians were removed from the area they called home.3 Flashback to the year 1830, after being elected in the year 1828 President Andre Jackson made a commitment to remove all Indians in the east and south, and in the year 1830 congress passed the Indian Removal Act.4 The Indian nations of the Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws and Seminoles were forced to leave their lands, but none of these tribes were hit as hard as the Cherokee Nation.4 The Cherokee Nation refusing to give