The Role Of African Americans In The Civil War

When you think of the Civil War, what do you think of? Unionists, Confederates, slave owners? Do you think of African Americans? Probably not. Just like the Revolutionary War, African Americans played an immense role in the entire war, yet many people don’t recognize them for that accomplishment. They were nurses, spies, cooks, soldiers, laborers, and heroes. African Americans were faced with mass racial prejudice, even from the abolitionist north, yet they chose to fight in order to abolish slavery for good. While some African Americans (in the Confederate territory) were forced to participate in the Civil War, most volunteered their aid. Whether free or enslaved, they played a vital part in the war and as a result, African Americans were
But they were denied the opportunity because of a 1792 law passed to keep African Americans from bearing arms in the U.S. Army. Moreover, it was also feared that if that law changed, some of the border states would secede from the Union. Finally, in late 1862, free African Americans were allowed to enlist in the Union army after the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Second Confiscation and Militia Act, in which slaves were freed who's masters were in the Confederate Army. Moreover, this event is credited to a former slave, Frederick Douglass. According to The Men Who Fought the Civil War, "Frederick Douglass, a black leader of the time, went to President Lincoln and requested that blacks become Union soldiers” (Wade). In May 1863, the Bureau of Colored Troops was created in order to manage the African American enlistees. Although many African Americans had rushed to volunteer when the war had begun, recruitment was now low until efforts were made to ensure volunteers eventual full citizenship after the war. Soon after, the first authorized African American regiments comprised of recruits from Massachusetts, Tennessee, and South Carolina, the areas that were under Union control, were
Initially, African American soldiers within the Union army didn't receive equal pay or treatment compared with the white soldiers. They were paid ten dollars a month, not including the three dollar clothing fee, while white soldiers were paid thirteen dollars a month with no clothing fee. This was eventually changed in June 1864 when Congress agreed to equalize pay between African American and white soldiers. Contrastly, even in a non-slavery North, racial discrimination existed widespread and African Americans were almost always treated as second class to white soldiers. Moreover, segregated regiments were established with African American soldiers under the control of white officers and sometimes non-commissioned African American officers. Many white officers had low opinions of their African American troops and didn't train them equally to white troops. In addition, African American regiments and separate soldiers were faced with much harsher treatment when captured by Confederates. Furthermore, the Congress of the Confederates even threatened to punish captured Union officers of African American troops as well as enslave African American