Slavery In Virginia During The Civil War

The Civil War were a war between the southern states and the northern states. The south were part of the Confederate States of America and the north were part of the United States of America. The main reason for the war were to protect slavery for the south and the north believed otherwise. Slavery in Virginia became one of the main states that were center of attention during the Civil War. The north were determined to abolish slavery and the south became outraged at the thought of not having slaves. Virginia were one of the biggest states that had slaves and slavery helped the economy grow. There were many states that broke away from the union and President Abraham Lincoln were determined to convince the states join the union again. Virginia …show more content…
By 1784, Virginia had ceased land in the northwestern territory which helped the government to start creating states. Around 1788, Virginia became the tenth state to enter the union after ratifying the United States Constitution. Around 1800, life were given to a slave named Nat Turner. Nat studied his surrounding while being on the plantation and as he grew older he began to learn how to read and write. On the plantation where Nat lived, the owners must not followed the rules as other slave owners did about not allowing slaves to be in a group of four or more because the owners thought that the slaves were plotting against them. Apparently other slaveholders were right because Nat started with getting a few slaves that he could trust involved with his plan. They had to learn how to communicate with one another without giving up their plot to rebel against their …show more content…
They decided to not abolish slavery. Instead, they came up with an abolition to tighten restrictions on African Americans. African Americans were prohibited from earning an education to slaves and free blacks, restricted rights of the assembly blacks, withdrew their right to vote, and required for white ministers to be present at black worship services. By 1859, abolitionist John Brown and others attack the U.S. military at Harper’s Ferry in order to gain weapons to start a slave revolt. The army sent Colonel Robert E. Lee to end the revolt, and Brown was captured and executed. Many southerners were outraged at the event, and began to see the north as their enemy. In 1861, the Civil War began. Virginia had the largest slave population, and decided to leave the union. By this time Abraham Lincoln was the president of the United States. He did not want the war to be about freeing slaves because the capital was surrounded by all slave states. Many slaves have started to cross state lines, and the confederacy was running to the country to capture their slaves. This became a problem because Butler was going to use slaves as a part of the war, and slave owners wanted their slaves back. Lincoln did a proclamation that stated as him being commander in chief, he can write a bill stating that slaves were property and not people, which mean they can be seized to be used in