Discuss The Role Of Slaves In The Civil War

The political nature of slaves in the Antebellum South, and during the Civil War was something that was consistently argued, even at points until the modern day period. Slaves played the major role in their own emancipation and pushed the Union to move towards the notion of total emancipation. Because of slaves’ deliberate, knowledgeable, acts of resistance and rebellion, they were central to the outcome of the war. Often believed to be apolitical, or at the very least, infantilized, by some white northerners and southerners, they consciously made their own decisions, which involved a clear understanding of the world they lived in. In the early days of the war, the Union and Confederacy recognized the importance of both slaves and freed black
Southern slaveholders while often downplaying the intelligence and ability of slaves through racist language, that they were well-informed about the conflict, and that it would most likely lead to their freedom from slavery. The Confederacy wanted to prevent the Union from using the slaves against them. For instance, in one letter, a man from Georgia, John J. Cheatham stated, “Some of our people are fearful that when a large portion of our fighting men are taken from the country, that large numbers of our negroes aided by emissaries will ransack portions of the country, kill numbers of our inhabitants, and make their way to the black republicans. . .” He suggested forcing a small number of slaves or even conscripted freedmen to fight in the Confederate Army, and argued that it would secure the white soldiers, and peace at home. E. Kirby Smith, a Confederate commander, wrote to a general and noted, “Every sound male black left for the enemy becomes a soldier whom we have afterwards to fight.” As the war progressed, many black soldiers were treated with harsh and cruel punishments, and it was suggested that many should be executed as traitors to the Confederacy, without a trial, instead of being punished, then returned to the
As the war matured, so did their struggles to obtain total emancipation in all states. Black soldiers, who exercised their autonomy and agency central to this struggle, demanded a fairer and more equal treatment within the military. People all around the country wrote to Congress, to Lincoln, the Freedmen’s Bureau and to other politicians or wartime leaders, expressing their desire for full freedom. By 1865, Northern victories only inspired more action, such as a series of petitions by black men living in a contraband camp in North Carolina. They mentioned the poverty, and the trouble with getting education for children, and the way that they were being treated by white soldiers. “… if we Say any thing to them they will talk about mobin us… they put the pistols to our ministers breast because he Spoke to them about they behavior in the Church. . .” They also mentioned that, “here is men here that has been working for the last three year and has not been paid for it.” Both of these statements point to the rampant racism and inequality behind Union lines in the late years of the