African American Role In The Civil War Essay

One of the main issues of the Civil War was if America was going to be a country of slavery. The South also known as the Confederate army were all the states that support slavery as they used slaves for their big agricultural fields. The North also known as the Union army were all the states that were against slavery, they believed African American are just as equal as a white man. With the country expanding both sides feared that the country will have more pro-slavery or anti-slavery states, this lead to the Civil War. Many African Americans were eager to fight in the war because they were fighting for their own freedom but at the beginning of the war, they were not able to fight. It wasn’t until January 1, 1863, in the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln that African Americans were able to contribute to the war. Like the white woman African American woman contributed to the war by becoming nurses, spies and suppliers. African women who were once lived in the south moved to the north and helped the union army by helping gather supplies. Harriet Tubman, “Moses” to African Americans, help slaves from the South escape to the North. Tubman worked as a scout and spy under the Union forces in Beaufort, South Carolina and as a nurse to the injured slaves that sought refuge in the North. Mary Elizabeth Bowser worked as a spy for …show more content…
More than 80% of the men that enrolled in the Union Army were men who came from Southern states who were once slaves. As more African American men enlisted in the Union army the Union War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops to oversee and examine enlisting colored men. A total of 7,122 officers and 178,895 enlisted men served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT), giving blacks the opportunity to prove their courage and