The Civil War, which began in April of 1861, was a war that most saw as ending by the end of the year – not one person expected it to turn into the long and drawn out slaughter that it became. It was a war that came about originally because of the secession of Southern states from the Union in the belief that the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency would render emancipation inevitable. Only white soldiers fought against each other at the outset of war but by mid-July of 1862, Henry Wilson – a Senator from Massachusetts who strongly opposed slavery – had passed a bill that allowed the President to bring African-Americans into active service in the Union army and following the Emancipation Proclamation the President finally allowed the recruitment of colored regiments. By creating a position for African-Americans in the army the status of these men in northern society was increasingly under question. This reflects recognition of the fact that as slavery became the main issue of the war something had to be done in relation to the position of these men in northern society. However, the changes that occurred could not go unnoticed by the South or by Northern whites and put a final stamp on the sectional division.
The institution of slavery and the increasing strain it brought between North and South made questions about the position of African-Americans in society increasingly prominent both amongst whites and blacks. Since they had been removed from their home environment and branded as slaves, a process beginning in 1619, the status of blacks had remained one of inferiority to white Americans. Although Lincoln originally argued that the Civil War was about keeping the Union together, a change would have to occur if the N...
... middle of paper ...
...ntry, 1863-1865. Boston: Boston Book Co., 1894.
Fitzgerald, Michael. Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2007.
Glatthaar, Joseph. Forged in Battle: Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers. New York: Free Press, 1990.
Greenberg, Kenneth. Masters and Statesmen: The Political Culture of American Slavery. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.
Hapgood and Adams, eds. Western Reserve Chronicle. May 20, 1863, image 2.
Smith, John. “Let Us All Be Grateful That We Have Colored Troops That Will Fight.” In Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era, edited by John Smith, 1-78. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Williams, George. A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1888.
Glathaar, Joseph T. Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers. New York: The Free Press Inc., 1990.
Heidler, David Stephen, and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a
While the formal abolition of slavery, on the 6th of December 1865 freed black Americans from their slave labour, they were still unequal to and discriminated by white Americans for the next century. This ‘freedom’, meant that black Americans ‘felt like a bird out of a cage’ , but this freedom from slavery did not equate to their complete liberty, rather they were kept in destitute through their economic, social, and political state.
Altman, Linda Jacobs. Slavery and Abolition in American History. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 1999. Print.
As the Civil War ended, according to Norton et al., America was a nation in need of “healing, justice, and physical rebuilding” (465). The war had left
African Americans helped shape the Civil War from various perspectives. Actually, they were the underlying foundation for the war if you think about it in depth. African Americans were slaves and had been dealt with like property since they arrived in America. The likelihood of opportunity for these slaves created an enormous commotion in the South. The issue of equal rights for African Americans brought on a gap between the states. The United States Civil War began as an effort to save the Union, and ended in a fight to abolish slavery. The Civil War, frequently known as the War Between the States in the United States, which was a Civil War battled from 1861 to 1865, after seven Southern slave states proclaimed their severance and framed the Confederate States of the United States. More Americans died in the Civil War than in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined. Two thirds of the individuals that were killed in the Civil War died of disease. The medical world at the time of the Civil War and advanced disinfectants, did not exist which could have enormously lessen the spread of disease and illnesses. After years of bloody combat that left over 600,000 soldier’s dead and destroyed much of the South's infrastructure, the Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, & the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring national unity and guaranteeing rights to the freed slaves began. By December 1865 the 13th Amendment had abolished slavery throughout the United States (Waldstreicher).
Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945-2006. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
Those studying the experience of African Americans in World War II consistently ask one central question: “Was World War II a turning point for African Americans?” In elaboration, does World War II symbolize a prolongation of policies of segregation and discrimination both on the home front and the war front, or does it represent the start of the Civil Rights Movement that brought racial equality? The data points to the war experience being a transition leading to the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s.
The Tuskegee Airmen were a fine example of many who had fought for equality between blacks and whites as well as many who had sought opportunity for blacks in those times, and had a high number of achievements and awards during their time in the military. Works Cited George, Linda and Charles. The Tuskegee Airmen. Canada: Children's Press, 2001. Brooks, Philip.
Perman Michael, Amy Murrell Taylor. Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011.
Since the beginning of slavery in the America, Africans have been deemed inferior to the whites whom exploited the Atlantic slave trade. Africans were exported and shipped in droves to the Americas for the sole purpose of enriching the lives of other races with slave labor. These Africans were sold like livestock and forced into a life of servitude once they became the “property” of others. As the United States expanded westward, the desire to cultivate new land increased the need for more slaves. The treatment of slaves was dependent upon the region because different crops required differing needs for cultivation. Slaves in the Cotton South, concluded traveler Frederick Law Olmsted, worked “much harder and more unremittingly” than those in the tobacco regions.1 Since the birth of America and throughout its expansion, African Americans have been fighting an uphill battle to achieve freedom and some semblance of equality. While African Americans were confronted with their inferior status during the domestic slave trade, when performing their tasks, and even after they were set free, they still made great strides in their quest for equality during the nineteenth century.
Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution. The University of North Carolina Press; November 25, 1996
In a debate in 1851, famed abolitionist Wendell Phillips presented a moving and forceful argument for acceptance of African Americans into the military by telling the story of the Haitian general, Toussaint-Louverture. Phillips' message survives today, over a century later, not only as a tribute to the hero who rose from slavery to create the first black republic, but also as a compelling statement against racial discrimination. Expertly using a mix of literary devices, including juxtaposition, irony, metaphor, and personification, Phillips enables his audience to see, through the lens of the orator's mind, the ideals that he promotes.
The American Revolution was a “light at the end of the tunnel” for slaves, or at least some. African Americans played a huge part in the war for both sides. Lord Dunmore, a governor of Virginia, promised freedom to any slave that enlisted into the British army. Colonists’ previously denied enlistment to African American’s because of the response of the South, but hesitantly changed their minds in fear of slaves rebelling against them. The north had become to despise slavery and wanted it gone. On the contrary, the booming cash crops of the south were making huge profits for landowners, making slavery widely popular. After the war, slaves began to petition the government for their freedom using the ideas of the Declaration of Independence,” including the idea of natural rights and the notion that government rested on the consent of the governed.” (Keene 122). The north began to fr...
1 (Winter 1994): 120. Eric Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction (New York: Harper and Row, 1990), 240-42. Kenneth M. Stampp, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877 (New York: Vintage Books, 1965), 186. 18. What is the difference between a '' and a ''? Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, The Reader’s Companion to American History (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991), 287.