In what way the African Americans shaped the course and
consequences of the Civil War? Confine your answer to the years
from 1861 and 1870. Immediately after the election and inauguration
of Abraham Lincoln, the newly-established Republican Party’s
presidential nominee, eleven states of the South seceded from the
Union. These events marked the beginning of the Civil War and the
war was a result of many political tensions that had emerged
between the North and the South in the prior decades, all of which
were associated with the institution of slavery installed in the
Southern United States.President Lincoln began the Civil War with
the South in response to states’ secession from the Union, and
therefore, the war was not solely concentrated over the issue of
slavery in American society. The North fought to preserve the Union
while the Confederacy fought to protect states’ rights. The
contributions of African Americans for the Union war effort in the
Civil War pushed the federal government, controlled largely by the
Republican Party, to fundamentally change the purpose of the war
itself, changing the course of the conflict, and therefore, the
social and political consequences that followed in the
Reconstruction Era.
In the first few years of the Civil War, there was a
consensus in the Union that the war was being fought over the
Confederacy’s claims to protection of slave property and the power
states’ rights over the federal government. Originally, the war was
not fought for the emancipation of African-American slaves in the
South. Major Benjamin Butler of the Union army was unsure of the
status of fugitive slaves he encountered in the South and he asked
the secretary of war if Union forces have the right to liberate
these people [A].Additionally, Major Butler realized that these
African-American men, women, and children could potentially be
helpful in the Union’s war effort [A]. Over time, President Lincoln
and the Union recognized the aid that African Americans could bring
and he decided to make the emancipation of slaves throughout the
United States a primary goal of the Union, promising them freedom
[C]. Lincoln saw the loyalty of African-Americans in the United
States and their support of the Union’s war effort in response of a
group of African-Americans to President Lincoln’s proposal for the
resettlement of black people outside of the country [B].President
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation declared all African-American
slaves in the South to be free and this statement marked a change
in the course of the Civil War as the conflict shifted from one
over states’ rights and protection of slave property to one over
the liberation and status of African Americans in American society.
President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation changed the
course of the Civil War as it declared that the liberation of
African-American slaves was a primary goal of the war.The
importance of this goal to the Union war effort was ever more
strengthened by the Republican Party’s platform in election of
1864. The Republican Party, led by President Lincoln, identified
slavery as a cause of the Civil War in their election platform and
called for the elimination of the institution of slavery throughout
the United States [D]. Additionally, in 1864, the Republicans
believed it was their responsibility to provide all available
protection to all men, regardless of race who had fought for the
Union, referencing to African-American soldiers who had died in the
conflict.The Republicans determined to make the elimination of
slavery of goal of the Civil War after they saw the contributions
of African Americans through military service and the fact that
these were willing to fight despite experiencing mistreatments and
prejudices. The New York Times portrayed the appreciation of whites
regarding African-American military service for the Union [F]. This
statement by the Republican Party exemplified a fundamental shift
in its position on slavery as when the war had begun in 1861, the
Republican Party saw the issue of states’ rights and the protection
of slave property the reasons for the war.
Because President Lincoln and the Republicans changed the course
of the Civil War by making it a war over the abolition of slavery,
the consequences that would emerge after the conclusion of the war
would therefore be different than what they had originally
believed. Although the war had ended, many of the issues that had
existed before the conflict still lingered. To deal with these
long-lasting issues, the Republicans passed the Thirteenth
Amendment, which abolished slavery in all of the United
States.Thomas Nast’s political cartoon published in Harpers Weekly
in 1865 depicted leaning liberty, the symbol of American democracy
asking for equality for African American veterans of the Civil War.
In the cartoon, the black soldier has lost his leg fighting for the
Union, showing the great sacrifices that African-American soldiers
had made [G]. Nast’s cartoon revealed that although
African-American slaves were emancipated, they remained to be
considered as second-class citizens were not well treated after the
war and that the South had not yet fundamentally
changed.African-American Virginia, at the Convention of the Colored
People of Virginia in 1865, saw themselves as American citizens and
demanded racial equality [H].
This document suggests that African American still do not
have equal rights and that they wished to be part a part of the
Reconstruction process following the war. Because African Americans
remained as second-class citizens in American society, the federal
government passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which gave all people
equal protection under the law and recognized blacks as American
citizens, in the Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed suffrage to
African Americans.Lastly, African Americans demonstrated that they
were part of the Reconstruction process by their participation in
state constitutional conventions in the late 1860s [J]. In
addition, African Americans were eager to receive an education
following their emancipation took elevate themselves to appear
equal to white Americans [E]. Although it appeared that
African-American involvement in the Civil War would not be some
necessary, when black troops did commit and participate in the
Union’s war effort, they shaped the course and consequences of the
Civil War.