Positions of Blacks in the Civil War and Emancipation

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Recommended: The participation of African Americans in the civil war

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

The quote mentioned above was proclaimed by African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and served as motivation for African Americans to enlist in the Union’s Army efforts and take an initiative in their future. With President Abraham Lincoln's issue of his Preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, the Civil War developed to be a war to ultimately save the union and to abolish slavery. Blacks overall played a substantial part in the victory of the union, helping them turn the tide against the confederate army. In all, there were roughly 200,000 black soldiers who served in over 100 units in the Union Army and Navy (10 percent of the Union). But while their involvement in war efforts deemed valuable there was tension on many fronts, there were major anti-Black prejudice against black involvement from people in Free states and in the loyal slave states; who were not in favor of arming the Black soldiers and letting them participate in combat. With that being said, what were the Social conditions for blacks in the North (Franklin) and the South (Augusta) prior to the war? How did many African Americans participate in the war and in what way? Did these conditions post war? The main purpose of this paper is to monitor African American contributions to the war and illustrate how these contributions changed their social status in society.

With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, it forecasted tremendous change for the entire country...

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...863. http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/papers/FN0000.

• Christy, Jacob. “Franklin County: Jacob Christy to Mary Jane Demus, August 10, 1864.” The Valley of the Shadow, August 10, 1864. http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/papers/F3004.

• Hargrove, Hondon B. Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 1988.

• Jordan, Ervin L. Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia. Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1995.

• Mobley, Joe A. Weary of War : Life on the Confederate Home Front. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2008.

• Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the Civil War. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969.

• Wesley, Charles H. Afro-Americans in the Civil War: From Slavery to Citizenship. 1979 ed. International Library of Afro-American Life and History. Cornwells Heights, Pa: Publishers Agency, 1978.

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