To what extent did African Americans shape the coming,

scope, and consequences of the Civil War?

Candidate number: 112265
Word count: 5,980

List of abbreviations:
P. S. Foner (ed.), The Voice of Black America: Major Speeches by Negroes in the United
States, 1797-1971, (New York, 1972) = VOBA
I. Berlin, B.J. Fields, S.F. Miller, J.P. Reidy, and L.S. Rowland (eds.), Free At Last: A
Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom and the Civil War (New York, 1992) = FAL
R. M. Myers, ed., The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia and the Civil War (New
Haven, 1972) = COP

In late 1863 and early 1864, Frederick Douglass toured the North, calling for no war but an
abolition war; no peace but an abolition peace; liberty for all, chains for none; the black man
a soldier in war, a laborer in peace; a voter at the South as well as at the North; America his
permanent home, and all Americans his fellow countrymen1. His message was clear for
the black community, this war could only be won with an end to slavery and the black vote.
The American Civil War held its own distinct meaning for all involved, but central to its
conceptualisation was the idea of freedom, whether that was freedom from the Slave
Power, Black Republicans, male oppression, white oppression, or European invaders, all
parties were concerned with being free in the way they wanted to be. Thus the American
Civil War was fought on multiple fronts, between different aggressors: in addition to fighting
Union troops, the Confederates (and Union slaveholders) were forced to fight their slaves,
who rebelled on an unprecedented scale, making the American Civil War part of the largest
slave revolt in US history, and integral to Union victory. Arguably, the motivations of
enslaved people in the American south were different but connected to the motivations of
the free blacks in the North; this essay will thus consider first the role of slaves in the
coming, scope and consequences of the civil war, before moving on to discuss the role of
free blacks. In many ways, the African American war began before the American Civil War,
which was shaped considerably by African Americans for their own purposes.
Slaves, horses and other cattle to be sold at 12 O Clock2, proclaimed one slave market
advertisement, showing how, at least in the eyes of many slave holders and traders, they
had reduced the humans they claimed to own to the status of animals. The historiography
surrounding black involvement in shaping the American Civil War had followed the

1
2

VOBA, pp.299-300.
P. Johnson, Soul By Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market (Harvard, 2000), p.218.

principles of the Southern planters by seeing the war as a white mans war, perhaps with
the exception of Cornishs The Sable Arm. Work from the 1860s onwards from historians
such as Genovese and Blassingame has done much to change contemporary views on black
involvement in the coming, scope and consequences of the civil war, and most historians
now take a more positive view. Though some historians debate the extent to which slaves
freed themselves3, this essay takes the view that they did.
Slave resistance was central to the American Civil War. It started as a personal act: to deny
owners their labour and control their own lives, slaves resorted to a variety of methods,
from running to the swamps for a period of time4, where slaves would support themselves
through hunting and exchange with plantation slaves, to more extreme acts such as selfmutilation5, infanticide, suicide or murder. Often resistance was far more subtle. Slaves
would forget to complete tasks, or would work slower, or hide their children until the
threat of sale had passed6. Once the war started, they would threaten to run to Union lines,
or actually run to Union lines, as one woman did repeatedly each time she returned her
workload was lowered7. Resistance became political: enslaved people knew that by doing
this they were undermining the institution of slavery. They had established networks8,
listening to whites conversations, illicitly reading white newspapers and spreading
knowledge around their local communities9. Whites were aware of this and tried to stop it:

I. Berlin, Who Freed the Slaves? Emancipation and Its Meaning in David Blight and Brooks Simpson (eds.),
Union and Emancipation: Essays on Politics and Race in the Civil War Era (Kent, OH, 1997)
4
FAL, p.51. On maroons see J.H. Franklin; L. Schweninger, The Quest for Freedom: Runaway Slaves and the
Plantation South in G. Boritt; S. Hancock eds. Slavery, Resistance, Freedom (Oxford, 2007) p.26.
5
Johnson, Soul by Soul, p.33.
6
Ibid., p.32.
7
T. Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage: the transformation of the plantation household (Cambridge, 2008),
p.110.
8
S. McCurry, Confederate reckoning: power and politics in the Civil War South (Cambridge, Mass., 2010)
pp.226-7.
9
S. Ash, The black experience in the Civil War South (Santa Barbara, 2010), pp. xvii-xviii.

slave traders often refused to let slaves speak to each other, and throughout the south
there was a fear of slave revolts and uprisings, despite such events being rare, unsuccessful
and involving few people. The Natchez revolt in 1861 was suppressed very quietly10,
highlighting slaveholders fears of the idea of insurrection spreading. Blacks continued to
resist the slaveocracy after they were freed. They would furiously burn cities and
plantations11 and, on Charles Manigaults Silk Hope plantation his slaves took over the big
house and left the family portraits out in the rain 12, symbolising their takeover of his land
and disdain for his authority. Try as they might, slaveholders were unable to stop blacks
resisting enslavement. In this way, blacks forced the emergence of white abolitionism, and
northern political antagonism with the south by forcing them to consider the slavery
question.
Running away was often so ubiquitous that most masters rarely responded, as slaves were
expected to return13, but some didnt and escaped to freedom: to cities, the North or
Mexico. Slaveholders often refused to let their property go, spending vast amounts of
money and resources recovering them. During the American Civil War, slaves ran away in
increasingly large numbers as escape became more feasible due to the advance of Union
troops. They equated Union with freedom from early on. According to one slaveholder: the
Negroes is very Hiley Hope up that they will soon Be free14. Freedman John Bostons letter
to his wife on January 12, 1862 reflects this idea: as the lord led the Children of Isrel to the
land of Canon So he led me to a land Whare freedom will rain 15. Some slaveholders thought

10

D.B. Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (Oxford, 2006), p.226.
Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage, p.106.
12
W. Dusinberre, Them Dark Days: slavery in the American rice swamps (Oxford, 1996) pp.431-2.
13
Franklin, The Quest for Freedom pp.23-4.
14
FAL, p.4.
15
Ibid., pp.29-30.
11

the solution was to refugee the slaves: to remove them beyond the temptation16 and they
also asked the Confederacy to stop impressing slave labour, as for every man the Govt
would obtain...the Enemy would add ten or twenty to his ranks17, showing the
Confederates were aware that the majority of slaves supported the Union. Thus from early
on, the slaves became a problem for the Confederacy, and forced themselves and their
desires upon the Union.
Generals Butler, Hunter and Frmont contradicted army orders to protect the slaves
Butler justified this by claiming as a military question it would seem to be a measure of
necessity to deprive their masters of their services18. He also wondered if the war had
changed their status: were they free, or contraband property19? Frmont was even more
radical in his approach, deciding that any rebels property that fell into his hands would be
confiscated, including slaves, who would hereby [be] declared free men20, Hunter made a
similar statement which Lincoln soon countermanded21. General Sherman was no
abolitionist, and worried that welcoming the slaves would alienate Union slaveholders22, but
he put them to work anyway23, highlighting the main attraction of contrabands for the
military. Union Slaveholders were indeed alienated as they were often unable to recover
their slaves, after soldiers, either due to sympathy for the slaves, or because the
contrabands lightened their workload, prevented slaveholders from reclaiming their

16

COP, p.929.
FAL, pp.153-4.
18
Ibid., p.10.
19
th
H.S. Commager; M. Cantor, Documents of American History, 10 edn (Englewood Cliffs, 2 Vols, 1988 ), i, 3967
20
Ibid., 398
21
FAL, pp.46-8.
22
Ibid., p.15.
23
Ibid., p.13.
17

property24. Some soldiers even raided plantations to liberate slaves from bad owners25.
However, the slaves new freedom was tenuously held. Many slaves were freed by Union
troops, only to be re-enslaved26. In the west, negro stealing was a huge part of the
endemic violence that engulfed Kansas and Missouri in the mid-nineteenth century27.
Despite these difficulties, slaves continued throughout the war to run to Union lines; by
1865, an estimated 200,000 had worked for the Union as labourers during the war 28. By
running to Union lines, they forced the Union to look at them differently, and many whites
changed their opinions on blacks, particularly after black soldiers won victories.
Slaves undermined the system in more subtle ways. Another form of resistance was
learning. Slaves taught themselves to read in secret as it was often illegal for them to learn,
as whites feared black literacy29. During the war, many freedmen and women taught
recruits to read and write, and established schools in the south. Freedmen saw literacy as
integral to improving their lives: one Northern official wrote about how the children learn,
and a small number of the adults with great eagerness30. Many free blacks and abolitionists
came to the South to teach during the war and Reconstruction, including the black-led
African Civilisation Society31. Post-war, Freedmen suffered from restrictive clauses in new
sharecropping contracts32, as the planter elite, who retained much of their power during
and after Reconstruction, tried to limit access to education for freedmen and their children
to keep them in a permanent servile state. They also tried to introduce literacy clauses into

24

FAL, p.16., 31-34.

Ibid., p.51.
26
Ibid.,103-4.
27
K. T. Oertel, Bleeding borders: race, gender and violence in pre-Civil War Kansas (Baton Rouge, 2008), p.33.
28
J. Harper, Women during the Civil War: an encyclopedia (New York, 2004), p.5
29
J. Anderson, The education of blacks in the South, 1860-65 (Chapel Hill, 1988), p.17.
30
FAL, p.264.
31
E. Forbes, African American women during the Civil War (New York, 1998), p.125.
32
Anderson, The education of blacks, p.22.
25

state constitutions to restrict black voters. During Reconstruction, 2,000 black officials were
elected by 1877 at local, regional, state and federal levels. The majority of them (83%)33
were educated. For blacks, becoming educated was a necessity to prove the worthiness of
their race and to prevent, or at least reduce, white discrimination.
Slaves undermined the Confederacy in other ways, something General Doubleday was
aware of when he issued these instructions on 6th April, 1862: all negroes...are to be
treated as persons and not as chattels... they make excellent guides They also Know and ...
have exposed the haunts of secession spies and traitors and the existance of reble
organization34. The Confederates also recognised this: they are traitors who may pilot an
enemy into your bedchamber! They...are the worst of spies35. In this way, the contrabands
proved their worthiness to the Union: O.M. Mitchel wrote to Stanton on May 4th, 1862:
with the assistance of the Negroes in watching the River I feel my self sufficiently strong to
defy the enemy36. Some ex-slaves showed considerable bravery working as spies. Mary
Elizabeth Bowser37 pretended to be a maid at the Confederate White House, and dubneys
wife38 worked as a washerwoman for a Confederate army camp, signalling the camps
planned movements on her washing line to her husband in the Union camp opposite.
Harriet Tubman spied, liberated slaves, and participated in military operations39. One man
helped get Union prisoners to safety by taking them across enemy lines40, another woman

33

E. Foner, The Tocsin of Freedom: The Black Leadership of Radical Reconstruction in G. Boritt; S. Hancock
eds. Slavery, Resistance, Freedom (Oxford, 2007), p.131.
34
FAL, p.36.
35
COP, p.930.
36
FAL, p.45.
37
R. Hall, Women on the Civil War battlefront (Lawrence, 2006) p.205-6.
38
Ibid., p.206.
39
Forbes, African American women, pp.37-9.
40
FAL, p.154-61.

hid Union prisoners of war in her house and helped them escape 41. Blacks often went back
across enemy lines to recruit more men for the Union cause42, and were sometimes caught
by Confederate troops, subjected to courts-martial and hanged43, or punished by their
masters or border ruffians44.

Confederate slaveholders wanted their male slaves

conscripted into the army as labourers, as one planter put it, to relieve [them] of a
dangerous element45. However, slaves continued to come, in collaboration with black or
white soldiers46. Perhaps most shockingly, Confederate soldiers were implicated in a scandal
for writing free papers for slaves in return for payment47 - another example of how slaves
worked to fracture the Confederate war effort which also suggests many Confederates did
not care about slavery. The Confederates began to lose morale: by 1864, one Georgian
wanted to return to the Union even if emancipation was the condition48.
The North had long before decided on that course of action. Lincoln and the Republican
political elite slowly moved towards the idea of uncompensated emancipation as
contrabands and resisting slaves proved their worth in the war: by the coming of the
Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st 1863, Lincoln liberated on paper at least, all
slaves held by rebels: crucially, he retained the support of the Border States and tried to
appease planters in occupied areas of the Confederate States by making the Emancipation
Proclamation not applicable to slaves held by loyal owners. It was not until the 13 th
Amendment was ratified that slavery was actually made illegal throughout the United
States. Nevertheless his actions were welcomed by the army: General Halleck, by March 31 st
41

FAL, p.129.
Ibid., p.108.
43
Ibid., p.96-97.
44
Ibid., p.112-15.
45
Ibid., p.132-3, 134-5.
46
Ibid., p.112-3, p.71.
47
Ibid., p.137-9.
48
Ibid., p.151-2.
42

1863 believed that the north must either destroy the slave-oligarchy or become slaves
themselves...this is the phase which the rebellion has now assumed49. Whilst for slaves, the
American Civil War had been merely a part of their ongoing war for freedom, for the
Northern whites, the war took a turn in meaning, from being about ensuring their freedom
to ensuring both their and black freedom. Many Northerners, like Lincoln, questioned the
validity of the Emancipation proclamation50, pronouncing it wholly void unless... as a war
measure51. Others felt more positively. The Republican abolitionist newspaper, the Chicago
Sun, felt people voted for Lincoln in the 1864 demand[ing] the destruction of slavery52. An
image depicting Lincoln as Moses with a freedman kneeling in front of him, kissing his
hand53, shows how powerfully the act was seen by people, creating the idea of Lincoln the
Emancipator, linking the war permanently with the idea of black freedom.
Freedmen soon learnt that they had to work hard to maintain their newfound rights as
Union officials could be as paternalistic as slaveholders. A northern overseer on the
liberated South Carolina Sea Islands warned that if they failed to show now that they could
work as hard without the whip as they used to work with it... the Govt would ... believe all
the stories their masters had told us about their laziness54. Blacks had to prove that they
could live up to Northern Republican free labour ideology, which meant giving up their
informal slave economy. Many refused to do so. Freedmen were sometimes able to assert
themselves: Philbrick, a northern capitalist, was forced to divide his recently purchased Sea
Islands land into family lots for freedmen to work in, because they refused to work as he

49

FAL, p.103.
W. E. Gienapp, The Civil War and Reconstruction: a documentary collection (New York, 2001), p.166.
51
Ibid., p.168.
52
Ibid., p.278.
53
Figure 48, Freedom to the Slaves, in Harold Holzer, Gabor S. Boritt, Mark E. Neely, Jr. The Lincoln Image:
Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print (New York, 1984)
54
FAL, p.246.
50

10

wanted55. Freedmen had to deal with Union impressments, as officials seemed to regard
their wishes and family ties as unimportant56. In addition they faced Confederate raids and
re-enslavement57. In Union camps, freedmen faced similar problems as well as endemic
sickness due to poor living conditions58. Female contrabands were generally ignored, or
seen as the wives of male freedmen, maintaining their status as property. Later they were
transported north to fill a labour shortage59. Some also found work in camps or with soldiers
as washerwomen, cooks and nurses. In Union occupied Louisiana and Mississippi,
slaveholders were forced by the Union army to pay freedmen for their labour. There were
problems with this, however. At least one plantation owner accused black soldiers of
inciting his workers to rebellion60, and abandoned blacks who had taken over their exowners plantation often had to fight to keep their claim to the land they worked and lived
on61, despite the praise of government officials: No White men in Louisiana could have
done more or better than these Negroes & they well deserve the reward of their labor 62.
The poor treatment of blacks did not go unnoticed: Major Julian E. Bryant made a damning
report to the District of Northeastern Louisiana Headquarters: generally the negro has been
treated by those employing him, as a mere brute...and not as a free citizen63.
Blacks in New Orleans complained similarly: the labor system established... does not
practically differ from slavery64, adding that there is no pratical liberty for the laborers,
55

FAL, p.262.
Ibid., p.200-4.
57
Ibid., pp.52-6, 269-77.
58
Ibid., p.192.
59
L. Schwalm, Between Slavery and Freedom: African American Women and Occupation in the Slave South, in
L. Whites; A. Long, Occupied Women: gender, military occupation and the American Civil War (Baton Rouge,
2009) p.150.
60
FAL, p.255-7.
61
Ibid., p.110-11, 257-9.
62
Ibid., p.111.
63
Ibid., p.269.
64
Ibid., p.319.
56

11

without the right of contracting freely65 In addition to labour restrictions, land was difficult
to obtain and keep. Soldiers from the 33rd USCI formed a building association in 1863 to
raise enough money to buy land communally66. Some efforts were made to help freedmen:
Shermans Special Field Orders No. 1567 set aside a large expanse of land for the use of exslaves and their families. In South Carolina, black delegates in 1868 tried to get a federal
loan to buy land for freedmen68, and the State Land commission helped about 14,000
African Americans obtain land by 187669. Northern whites showed they were just as
paternalistic as Southerners in believing they had to show blacks how to work and live.
Blacks had already fought to free themselves from one system of exploitation, but had to
fight again to work on their own terms.
Slaves attempted to use the legal system to assert their rights from early on in their war for
freedom. Dred Scott sued for his and his familys freedom several times. Chief Justice Roger
B. Taney finally ruled in 1857 that Dred Scott had no right to sue, as African Americans were
not classified as citizens. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law forced Free States to allow for the
return of slave runaways in the North. This was deeply contested by slaves: they still ran
away and they were protected ever more vociferously by the biracial abolitionist
community. After the outbreak of war, slaves had more and more of an opportunity to
assert their rights. In contraband camps and in the army, blacks gained access to justice for
the first time. In the army, blacks were often court-martialled for mutinies, usually starting
because of white prejudice or discrimination. Courts-martial were generally extremely fair

65

FAL, p.320.
Forbes, African American women, p.14.
67
FAL, p.40.
68
J. Underwood; W. Burke, At freedoms door: African American founding fathers and lawyers in
Reconstruction South Carolina (Columbia, S.C., 2000), p.7.
69
A. Ochiai, Harvesting freedom: African American agrarianism in Civil War era South Carolina (Westport,
2004), p.241.
66

12

and colour-blind in pronouncing their judgements70, and often made allowances for
provocation, i.e. discrimination. Black women were also able to access justice for the first
time. While in Union camps, women were often abused by Union men. But, under the 1863
Enrolment Act, rape by Union soldiers was made a military crime and some women were
able to get some justice. However, black evidence was often questioned71, and there was a
clear hierarchy of sentencing, with black men receiving the worst punishment and white
men receiving lighter punishment: in one case, Lincoln had a rape case reviewed and the
wealthy white defendant got a presidential pardon for the remainder of his sentence: 9 and
years72. Black men and women bravely asserted themselves, despite facing discrimination,
as for many it was the first time that they could.
Freedmen often sought official help to recover their families73. Spotswood Rice wrote to the
owner of his children, promising to reclaim his children: my Children is my own and I expect
to get them...and to execute vengencens74. Nancy Johnson and Samuel Larkin lost property
to the incoming Union soldiers and attempted to get compensation75. While both received
something, it was less than they asked for, and blacks generally were less able to access
compensation, pensions and other government services76. By participating in the legal
system and calling on the Union government for support, blacks showed they believed they
were part of the Union community.

70

C. Samito, The Intersection between Military Justice and Equal Rights: Mutinies, Courts-martial, and Black
Civil War Soldiers, Civil War History, 53.2 (2007), pp.170-202.
71
E. Barber; C. Ritter, Physical Abuse...and Rough Handling: Race, Gender and Sexual Justice in the
Occupied South, L. Whites; A. Long, Occupied Women: gender, military occupation and the American Civil War
(Baton Rouge, 2009), p.62.
72
Ibid., p.64.
73
FAL, pp.120-1, 122-3, 505-7.
74
Ibid., p.482.
75
Ibid., p.123-9, 266-8.
76
R. Reid, Freedom for themselves: North Carolinas Black soldiers in the Civil War era (Chapel Hill, 2008),
p.324.

13

However, discrimination was everywhere. In Mississippi, a recent state law forced blacks to
find a white employer by the second week of January, or be arrested for vagrancy77. In
Louisiana, freedmen were often forced into sharecropping and debt peonage 78. The slaves
on Philbricks land complained about abusive managers and that he had promised to sell
land to them but later refused79. Francis L Cardozo, a black delegate in the South Carolina
Constitutional Convention, spoke in 1868 about the need to break up the plantation system:
give [the planters] an opportunity, breathing time, and they will reorganize the same old
system they had before the war80. Thus freedmen sought the vote to better protect
themselves. Black Tennesseans claimed historical precedent and their participation in the
war as reason enough for them to vote81. William H. Gray, a black delegate in the Arkansas
Constitutional Convention in 1868, said he couldnt trust white men to protect his rights: it
would be impossible for the Negro to get justice in a state whereof he was not a full
citizen82. While some progress was made largely due to the tireless work of freedmen, the
South became increasingly restrictive of black rights after Reconstruction ended,
disenfranchising black males and imposing segregation laws as the whites did what Cardozo
feared.
The black community fought back. The navy was already open to blacks, though they usually
worked in more menial, low-paying jobs83. Many blacks joined the navy as the war started;
others blacks organised themselves into army regiments: William A. Jones wrote to the
Secretary of War, Simon Cameron on November 27th, 1861 urging him to receive one or

77

FAL, p.524.
C. Ripley, Slaves and freedmen in Civil War Louisiana (Baton Rouge, 1976), p.197.
79
FAL, p.290-4.
80
VOBA, p.353.
81
FAL, p.504.
82
VOBA, p.354-5.
83
J. M. McPherson, Ordeal by fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction (Boston, 1992) p.347.
78

14

more regiments (or companies) of the colored of the free States84. Cameron refused their
service. General Hunter armed his contrabands without permission. In his explanation, he
was unrepentant: I have clothed, equipped and armed the only loyal regiment yet raised in
South Carolina85, highlighting the fact that blacks were faithful to the Union, and whites
were not. Black soldiers who had fought on the Confederate side in New Orleans had to
work hard to convince Union officers to let them fight on the Union side. The black officers
tried to retain their position: If the world doubts our fighting give us A chance and we will
show then what we can do86, but were forced to resign. Once black soldiers were admitted
to the army, they could only be led by white officers and were often left to fatigue duty.
Some officers like Colonel Beecher protested this87, and blacks were eventually (by June
1864) given equal fatigue duty with whites. Blacks had to prove their military prowess to a
disbelieving white world. Songs such as Sambos Right to be Kilt88 showed that for many
whites, blacks were accepted into the army to allow for more whites to live. It wasnt until
after battles such as at Fort Wagner that black soldiers were seen positively by the majority
of Northern whites, but many blacks believed it would be worth it to gain white acceptance,
and then the right to vote.
Blacks were denied equal wages after having been promised it89. The 54th and 55th
Massachusetts colored regiments protested by refusing (along with their white officers) to
take any pay. Many sought a discharge after protesting for more than a year due to the
financial strain. James Henry Gooding, a freeborn soldier, whose letters home were
published in a Northern newspaper, wrote to Lincoln: all we lack, is a paler hue, and a
84

FAL, p.18-19.
Ibid., p.58.
86
Ibid., p.438-9.
87
Ibid., p.459-60.
88
McPherson, Ordeal by fire, p352.
89
W. L. Andrews, The Oxford Frederick Douglass Reader (Oxford, 1996), p.225.
85

15

better acquaintance with the Alphabet...We have done a Soldiers Duty. Why cant we have a
Soldiers pay?90. Blacks were not only denied equal pay, but their families, many of whom
were still left in slavery, were often subjected to violence due to their men being soldiers91.
The Confederacy attempted slave enlistment in the end, but never endorsed the idea of
emancipation on enlistment92. In spite of their courageous fighting, blacks continued to face
discrimination.
Blacks were the first troops to enter Richmond on April 4 th 1865, highlighting the depth of
change in their roles during the war. After the civil war had ended, the only black troops at
the Grand Review in Washington were contraband labourers; but blacks were present at
other reviews93. This was partly because they had enlisted later than most white soldiers,
but was also due to racism. Black veterans often faced violence after the war, and found it
more difficult to get work than black civilians and white veterans94. By the late nineteenth
century, there was little remembrance of black military involvement. In 1897, a memorial to
the Massachusetts 54th was built, but only Robert Gould Shaw, the white officer, was
sculpted with any likeness95. In 1913, Woodrow Wilson led a commemorative service of
veterans. No black troops were represented; blacks were only present as labourers 96.
Despite their successful attempt to use their military service to gain more rights, the end of
Reconstruction led to increased white racist violence and restrictive legislation against the
black community.

90

FAL, p.462, 467 black labourers were sometimes better paid than the soldiers.
Ibid., p.464.
92
Ibid., p.164-5.
93
G. Gallagher, The Union War (Cambridge, Mass., 2011), p.11.
94
S. Grant, Fighting for Freedom: African-American Soldiers in the Civil War in S. Grant; B. Reid, Themes of the
American Civil War (New York, 2010) p.203
95
Ibid., p.185.
96
Davis, Inhuman Bondage, pp.306-8.
91

16

Free blacks in the North had been clear about what they wanted from the political elite:
enfranchisement and equality. Prior to the Civil War, the north reduced the black vote to a
tiny minority97. They fought back against this and other inequalities. Benjamin F. Roberts in
Boston took the city to court to try to desegregate schools. Though it took several cases and
some help from white allies (including Charles Sumner), they eventually won 98. Blacks
questioned the right of their government taxing them for services they were excluded
from99. On August 14th, 1862, Lincoln met with five black leaders to discuss a colonization
proposal. Lincoln believed that colonization was the only way to deal with the enmity
between whites and blacks in America, saying, in an extremely paternalistic speech, it is
better for us both...to be separated100. Isiah C. Wears refuted the proposal, saying that
blacks did not need charity; they needed to have the same right to their own labour as
whites101. Many Northern blacks agreed, though some preferred to take their chances
abroad. After the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation, there were celebrations, but
there was also a sense that blacks deserved more. After the New York Draft Riots, the once
non-violent J.W.C. Pennington called upon the black community to defend itself102. In New
Orleans, the black community called for the right to vote. When the state denied it, they
sent a delegation north. Arnold Bertonneaus impassioned speeches to the president and
Massachusetts Republicans led Lincoln to write to Governor Hahn on March 13th, 1864,
asking him to consider giving ten per cent of the black community the vote. He publicly
proposed this idea in his Last Public Address. The passing of the 13 th, 14th and 15th

97

Foner, The Tocsin of Freedom, p.118.

C. Mabee, Black Freedom: the nonviolent abolitionists from 1830 through the Civil War (New York, 1970),
p.172.
99
Ibid., p.264.
100
Roy P. Basler ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, (9 vols, New Brunswick, 1953-1955) p.373.
101
VOBA, p.262.
102
Ibid., p.275.
98

17

Amendments to the US constitution eventually assured African Americans the vote, at least
at first. In this way, blacks were very successful in shaping the aims of the civil war.
John S. Rock, the first black man admitted to the Supreme Court, was radical in his call for
emancipation: compensate the master? No, never. It is the slave who ought to be
compensated103. Northern blacks fought hard to help free enslaved blacks before and
during the civil war, and helped them rebuild the South afterwards. Prior to the start of the
Civil War, free blacks such as David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet were inciting slave
resistance. Walker called upon slaves to learn about the Haitian revolution 104, while
Garnets impassioned speech called for slaves to fight and rather die freemen, than live to
be the slaves105. Frederick Douglass spent the end of 1863 and beginning of 1864 touring
the North talking about the need for an end to slavery to gain equality106, as well as
recruiting for the army. Many free blacks opened their homes to fugitives on the
Underground Railroad107; others provided help by forming crowds to storm courthouses to
free fugitives108. Some formed aid societies such as the all-black, female, Salem Female AntiSlavery Society109. In St Louis, contraband women who were transported there were
supported by the all-female, biracial Contraband Relief Society110. Free blacks worked
tirelessly to liberate slaves and support them after, for moral reasons and to prove to whites
that blacks did not belong in bondage. Their actions became incorporated into the aims of
the civil war, linking the two communities further.

103

VOBA, p.257.
Davis, Inhuman Bondage, p.171.
105
VOBA, p.151.
106
Ibid., p.298.
107
L. Horton, Kidnapping and Resistance: Antislavery Direct Action in the 1850s in D.Blight, Passages to
Freedom: the Underground Railroad in history and memory (Cincinnati, 2004) p.162.
108
Ibid., p.167-9.
109
Harper, Women during the Civil War, p.8.
110
Schwalm, Between Slavery and Freedom, p.149.
104

18

The church was instrumental to the African Americans war. In the North, black churches
such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church were at the centre of black communities, and led missionary efforts in the South. In
addition, black ministers were able to speak up for blacks in a position which was more
likely to be respected by the white community. Henry McNeal Turner was a chaplain in the
army during the war, and afterwards did much to convert freedmen to the African
Methodist Episcopal Church. His theological training was biracial and multi-denominational,
providing him with a useful network of allies in his quest to win the South from the white
Southern Methodists111. Black ministers were respected as leaders of the community
Sherman and Stanton met with local ministers in Savannah in February, 1865, to discuss the
future of the freedmen of Georgia112. The friendly face of the black church helped the black
community strengthen its ties with the Union, and helped win the majority of Southern
blacks into its influence.
The coming, scope and consequences of the American Civil War affected other minority
groups who were fighting their own battles for freedom. Poor whites in the south felt they
suffered more for a cause that was not theirs113. They showed their disillusionment by
deserting in ever larger numbers, so that by 1865, two-fifths were absent from the army114.
Poor Southern women suffered deprivation, but also fought and engaged with the state in
new ways: the Regulators wrote to Vance, the governor of North Carolina in 1863
threatening to take food unless it was supplied, a threat they carried out115. Poor women
across the Confederacy rioted over food shortages in the spring of 1863. Many Indian tribes
111

J. Smith, Black soldiers in blue: African American troops in the Civil War era (Chapel Hill, 2002), p.337.
FAL, p.309-18.
113
Ibid., p.148-50.
114
McCurry, Confederate Reckoning, p.124.
115
Ibid., p.175.
112

19

were forced to pick sides in the conflict, and about 20,000 Indians fought in it 116. Tribes in
Indian Territory suffered particularly badly, as this led to internecine strife, and forced
migration for many tribe members117. After the civil war, many were forced to renegotiate
their treaties118. In the North, the Sioux Uprising, from August to December, 1862, led to
severe retaliation, with the execution of 38 Dakota and the tribes expulsion from the
state119. For the Indians, the Civil War led to so much displacement and internecine warfare
that it could be argued that it marked the end of their efforts to stop American expansion.
Like all minority groups, African Americans were involved in a war with the white male
majority throughout the nineteenth century. Their story is more complicated than many
because in the north and south, blacks had different obstacles to overcome. In the north,
(and later in the south) blacks fought for and won much political freedom as a consequence
of the Civil War. For many black southerners, freedom meant merely the continuation of
their struggle for equality, but it was an enormous step forward. The coming, scope and
consequences of the American Civil War were deeply shaped by the black community,
which forced the war of the white political elite to become a war about emancipation and
black rights through the tenacity of black resistance to the social and political structures
imposed upon them. The words of Henry Highland Garnet were well remembered: let your
motto be resistance! resistance! resistance!120.

116

L. Hauptman, Between two fires: American Indians in the Civil War (New York, 1995), p.x.
Ibid., p.xi.
118
T. Miles, Ties that bind: the story of an Afro-Cherokee family in slavery and freedom (Berkeley, 2005) p.188.
119
H. Reilly, The Frontier Newspapers and the coverage of the Plains Indian Wars (Santa Barbara, 2010) p.1416.
120
E. Hutchinsin, Let your motto be resistance: the life and thought of Henry Highland Garnet (Boston, 1972),
p.153.
117

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