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In What Ways Did African Americans Shape the Course and Consequences of the Civil War? Confine Your Answer to the Years from 1861 to 1870.

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When the Civil War began in 1861, the issue of slavery was not the central focus of the war effort on the side of the Union. While it was still important to many in the North, the main war aim of the Union side was to preserve the Union and make sure it remained intact. As the war dragged on and more soldiers died on both sides, Lincoln realized he would need to entirely cripple the already weak Confederate economy, and he did this by making the Emancipation Proclamation, which became effective January 1, 1863. This executive order stated that all slaves in states currently in open rebellion against the United States were free from slavery. By doing this, he caused African Americans in slave states to cross into Union territory and into …show more content…

G). This turned out to be an important issue to the Republican Party, as they included not only the abolishing of slavery in the nation in their party platform in 1864, but also saying that all men in their army deserved equality, no matter what their race was (Doc. D). African Americans viewed themselves as beneficial and important citizens of America, and not just when it came to wanting to fight in the war. Understandably, they were offended and upset when Lincoln and the federal government proposed sending them all, slave and nonslave alike, to a colony in Central America, and they felt that the needs of the nation at large prevented them from being able to leave without helping their fellow countrymen however they could, using their constitutional right of freedom of assembly to meet together and come up with a resolution explaining their position and the reasoning for it (Doc. B). Following the war, African Americans were highly interested in participating in the formation of the new state constitutions and governments for the Reconstruction period. In Virginia, African Americans came together, similar to the ones in New York, asserting their opinion and ideology that all men in the state should have equal rights, namely suffrage and the other rights the Declaration of Independence had promised citizens of the United States, since they were now free men and therefore should have the same

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