How Did African Americans Respond To The Emancipation Dbq

Although slavery was declared over after the passing of the thirteenth amendment, African Americans were not being treated with the respect or equality they deserved. Socially, politically and economically, African American people were not being given equal opportunities as white people. They had certain laws directed at them, which held them back from being equal to their white peers. They also had certain requirements, making it difficult for many African Americans to participate in the opportunity to vote for government leaders. Although they were freed from slavery, there was still a long way to go for equality through America’s reconstruction plan.

America two years into the Civil War, battles going back and forth and many causalities to go along with it. In the beginning of the Civil War northerners refused black volunteers soldiers in battle. As the causalities rose it pressured to allow the black men to partake in the war. Once Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 black men started to get recruited to join the Union army. Frederick Douglass called out in harsh detail why black Americans should enlist in the army.

Bobby L. Lovett writing for the Journal of Negro History gives an account of African -Americans in the Civil War, in his article the “The Negros Civil War 1861-1865”. Lovett opens his article by explaining how Tennessee officially seceded on June 8 1861, and how eight months later taken the state was over by the Union Army. In the first part of his article, Lovett gives us some background information about how the Confederacy and the state of Tennessee planned on using the “quasifree” African-Americans. Lovett goes on to explain how some free blacks of the city of Nashville sided with the Confederacy along with the captured slaves, and servants. Although some fought for the Confederacy, most fled to the Union line to enlist in the Union Army

Soldiering for Freedom: How the Union army recruited, trained, and deployed the U.S. Coloured Troops by Bob Luke and John Smith discusses the recruitment, training process and deployment of blacks by the Lincoln government. In addition to this the struggles faced by black Union soldiers who fought in order to gain their freedom but who was only met by racial prejudice. The authors also focused on “how the government mobilised and utilised blacks in battle and how white circumscribed and shaped their efforts. In my review, I will be focusing on the topics that I believed to be very influential in the process of gaining the trust of blacks in order to encourage them to enlist and fight in the Civil War after their help was needed and seen as

The black subordination social order had remained, unbroken by the abolishment of slavery or the Amendments that followed. The first sign of an attempt at a new social order was seen in Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1862, where slavery was legally abolished in the Union states. Paired with Union victory at Antietam, emancipation looked to be a serious threat to the well-established institution of slavery in the Confederacy, or Southern states. In 1865 Congress had approved the Thirteenth Amendment; it

The key aspect discussed here is the difference and similarities between African American soldiers and white soldiers, in the Civil War. In the past African Americans were slaves in the south part of the United States. However, when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans were freed in the Confederate states. According to the American Nation book, when the war began, thousands of free African Americans volunteered to fight for the Union. In addition, the army assigned African Americans to all-black units commanded by white officers.

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation One year before the American Civil War came to an end President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Not only was the Proclamation a stepping stone for civil rights, but it was a strategic military measure. The Proclamation freed slaves in the confederate states in order to cripple the Confederacy while maintaining good relations with the boarder slave states loyal to the Union (McPherson, 557). The Proclamation was significant for Union strategy because it made it legal for blacks to enlist in the Union Forces (McPherson, 563), giving a strategic advantage to the Union to have more troops. By the end of the war blacks made up nearly 12% of Union forces, which was equivalent to the entire

It further proved to the blacks that the war is a war for their freedom. The proclamation also allowed the acceptance of blacks to the army, which increased the amount of soldiers the Union had. It also added moral force for the Union and strengthen them militarily. Eventually the South also allowed African Americans to enroll in the army, but they refused to arm them. Many blacks worked as relief roles, such as nurses and cooks.

For an African-American during the New York City Draft Riots of 1863 the events that took place would be described as nothing less than horrific. This was caused when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863. This stated all slaves within any State, or designated part of a State still in rebellion shall be granted freedom. If any southern state returned to the Union between September and January, whites in that state suppositionally would not lose ownership of their slaves. Despite its limits, free blacks, slaves, and abolitionists across the country considered it as one of the most important actions on behalf of freedom in our nation's history.

During the Civil War, many former slaves fought for the Union, proving themselves in battle. They faced inferior pay, inferior promotions, and the possibility of being massacred after a surrender, an event that happened at Fort Pillow. Black soldiers in the Union army faced racism and horrible circumstances, but they bravely fought – and won – battles. Seeing the amount that African-Americans fought for their freedom is astounding. To claim otherwise would be an egregious

African Americans had an extremely pivotal role in the outcome and consequences of the Civil War. This group of people were enslaved, and forced to work in horrible conditions, for the whole day, without pay. Slaves were one of the main causes of the Civil War. The issue of Slavery, which resulted in the eventual economic and social division between the North and South, caused the creation of the Confederate States. African Americans did not only unintentionally cause the war, but they also effected the outcome of the war, and the eventual consequences the nation would face after the war.

The restriction on blacks enlisting exasperated the blacks in the Union Army, an abolitionist by the name of Frederick Douglass was an advocate for the recruitment of black soldiers, he stated to the nation in an article of the Douglass Monthly on just how to end the war. Douglass put pen to paper and stated, “let the slaves and free colored people be called into service and formed into a liberating army into the South and raise the banner of Emancipation.” (Mitgang, 1989) Douglass believed that it was imprudent for the Union army’s to carry on fighting the Confederacy without the help of Negro soldiers, so Douglass asked, ‘why does the Government reject the negro? Is he not a man?

During the beginning of the Civil War, African Americans were banned from enlisting into the federal army due to President Lincoln's decision. The Union stated that the war was “a white man’s war” as Ohio congressman Chilton A. White described the American government was made “for white men to be administered, protected, defended and maintained by white men”. [Book] Some slaves fled the South and were called “contraband”, coined term by General Benjamin F. Butler ; they were put to work for the Union. Despite opposition from the president, African-Americans formed militia in hope to be called for service in many areas in the North. Some blacks felt they owed no allegiance to this county.

The American wars had certain effects on the black soldiers such as freedom; Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves as from 1863.The army used blacks not as slaves any more but as paid workers. Even though they received less pay than whites did, they achieved equal pay after a successful lobby. Significant roles of colored troops led to the African-Americans gaining new rights (Dudziak, 2011). The acts of rebellions by organized soldiers of Union Army dwarfed all other injustices and General Butler declared refugee slaves as contraband and later as a policy.

In April of 1861, the first month of the civil war, Alfred M. Green gave a speech to encourage his fellow African Americans to “prepare to enlist” and fight for the north. The north was fighting to preserve the Union and end slavery while the opposing side, the south, fought to defend slavery. Although they could not fight in the war, and did not want to, he felt that African Americans should “strive to be admitted to the ranks.” In his speech, Green uses many different methods to persuade them to join the Union forces.