The Civil War Of African Americans

A Civil War is a battle between the same citizens in a country. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the independence for the Confederacy or the survival of the Union. By the time Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1861, in the mist of 34 states, the constant disagreement caused seven Southern slave states to their independence from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, generally known as the South, grew to include eleven states. The states that remained devoted to the US were known as the Union or the North. The number one question that is never completely understood about the Civil War is what caused the war. There were multiple events that led to the groundbreaking, bloody, and political war.

Abraham Lincoln once stated “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln is a hero for the citizens of America because his determination and courage to ending slavery even if it meant war caused peace in this nation. Slavery was the vital cause of the American Civil War. The north and the south both had their differences on how to run the country. People in the North believed in unity and that slavery should not exist because “all men are created equally.” On the other hand, the South believed in continuing slavery. People tried to talk it out and come to a middle ground after both sides compromising, however that didn’t work and caused war. Ideological differences were a vital role to making the American Civil War an inevitable event.

The American Civil War claimed the lives of over 700,000 people. The war was fought from 1861-1865. The results of the war were described as; a union victory, abolishment of slavery, territorial integrity preserved and the destruction and dissolution of the Confederate States. The twelve years that followed were called the Reconstruction Era, 1865-1877. The purpose of the Reconstruction Era was to restore National Unity, strengthen the government, and guarantee rights to freed slaves. The reality of reconstruction though was; violence (260,000 dead), newly freed slaves suffered the most, and Lincoln's hopes of trust and rededication to peace were lost when he was assassinated on April 15th, 1865. It is these realities of the Reconstruction Era and beyond that this paper will address and how those realities affected the newly freed slaves. Life in post-bellum America for African - Americans was violent and filled with fear because of white supremacy, lynching, and the brutal mutilations of blacks.

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

Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."

After four prolonged years of the Civil War that took place in America the nation transpired broken, and required much need of being rebuilt into a nation of one. The newly freed slaves, after the Civil War, moved to different cities, freed slaves built Black churches and communities; they were capable of attending school, and even became more involved in politics. With this new found freedom many documents, agencies, and associations also arose such as: the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, and the Black Codes. These documents and organizations played important roles during the Reconstruction Era. Arguably, the Reconstruction Era in America was extremely restrained. African Americans gained basic rights as humans, but given the bare

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.

Many historians assert that Reconstruction started during the Civil War with federal government debates that began in early 1863; however, history typically acknowledges the Reconstruction Era as the time between the conclusions of the Civil War’s armed conflict in 1865 through the signing of the Compromise of 1877. Historians agree in practicality that this tumultuous period of Reconstruction did not just abruptly end in 1877 as African Americans continued to face racial bias and discrimination through the Jim Crow era in the 1890s and on through the first decades of the twentieth Century. The freedom and exuberance that 4.2 million ex-slaves experienced at the end of the Civil War did not automatically convert to equality, nor did their

By the fall of 1862 events had been changed in favor of accepting the black soldiers. The U.S government awarded the congressional medal of honor and was first issued during the civil war to recognize gallant service to 24 African Americans. The government called about 75,000 Volunteers in April 1861 compelled many northern blacks to offer their services to a war department opposing to arming blacks for fear it would induce the slave holding border states to join the confederacy.

In 1865, the United States government implemented what was known as Reconstruction. Its’ purpose was to remove slavery from the south, and give African-American’s the freedom in which they deserved. However, the freedom that they deserved was not the freedom that they received. With documents like The Black Codes restricting them from numerous privileges that white people had and the terroristic organization known as the Klu Klux Klan attacking and killing them, African-American’s were still being oppressed by their government as well as their fellow man. Slavery may have been abolished, but African-American’s were not yet given the freedom and rights that their white counterparts took for granted.

Before the Emancipation Proclamation, the blacks were rushed to enlist for the Union during the Civil War but they are not allowed to join the army because of the Federal law dating from 1792 barred Negroes from serving for the US army. Although they already joined the war since the American Revolution and the war of 1812. After the first Emancipation Proclamation was executed, the African-American could serve the Federal Army, the first regiment was the 54th Massachusetts, though there were all black soldiers but there were no black commissioned officers-only whites. In that regiments, the blacks are not paid as equal as the whites, they were only being paid 10$ per month from which 3$ was deducted for clothing while the whites were paid 13$ and no clothing allowance was drawn.

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 Civil War was the turning point in American history to free a race that was considered property. This war would unify blacks and whites to fight side by side each other against the South. The Missouri Compromise, Nat Turner’s rebellion, the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Dred Scott V. Sanford led the North to consider themselves liberators against the slave-holding South. The Emancipation Proclamation would free over 3.1 million slaves out of a total of 4 million slaves during the time. This document would only free slaves from the Southern states.

In 1861, a horrific war began. Nobody had any idea that this war would become the deadliest war in American history. It wasn’t a regular war, it was a civil war opposing the Union in the North and the Confederate States in the South.. The Civil War cost many people’s lives on the battlefield and beyond. In addition it cost an extreme amount of money for the nation which possibly could have been avoided if the war had turned to happen a little differently.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, many Americans believed that the institution of slavery would soon die out of its own status. However, it was just about to undergo a profound change that would make it the leading factor of the economy of the Antebellum Era, or the period falling between 1810 and the American Civil War. The Slave life varied greatly depending on many factors. Life on the fields meant working sunup to sundown seven days a week and having food sometimes not suitable for an animal to eat. Plantation slaves lived in small shacks with a dirt floor and little or no furniture. Life on large plantations with a cruel overseer was oftentimes the worst. However, work for a small farm owner who was not doing well could mean not being fed at all.