Eliyah Watson

AFHS-257
Professor Funk
11/12/23

African American Ticket to Freedom

Given the options of experiencing insufferable conditions through forced servitude

against their own will or escaping to different regions in the United States, African Americans

made their choices based on their desire, coming with advantages and disadvantages. Unlike

their slaveholders’ perspective, as slaves were presumably unintelligent, lacked strength and

literacy, and had no purpose besides undergoing forced labor and servitude, they wholeheartedly

showed their capabilities and proved them otherwise. Known as one of the most violent wars in

USA history, the Civil War saw its peak through the participation of Black soldiers, which led to

the abolition of slavery.

The American Civil War was a war fought from April 12, 1861, to May 26, 1865 between

two different regions: the Union and the Confederacy. The Union states were the northern

portion of the United States and western free states (California, Maryland, Connecticut,

Minnesota, etc.), while the Confederacy were the southern states that intended to protect the

institution of slavery (Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, etc.). The nature of the war is

prominent because it was caused by various factors such as the issue of slavery in the economy

and society, federal rights of states, the dispute between pro-slavery states and free states, the

abolitionist movement, and more. Since the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 became more demanding
than ever, it created intense pressure for the free states but failed, insisting on maintaining the

slavery system. In an excerpt discussing the South Carolina Declaration of Secession the author

explains, “The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,…have enacted laws

which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them.”1

Soon after 16th US President Abraham Lincoln established the Emancipation

Proclamation on January 1, 1863, many slaves in the Confederate states were free and legally

granted permission to join the Union army and Navy, while some were still slaves and escaped to

Union lines to join the army. In an excerpt about former slave William Henry Singleton who

gathered a military regiment while fighting for the Union, he recalls, “”President Lincoln shook

hands with me and said, “It is a good thing. What do you want?” I said, “I have a thousand men.

We want to help fight to free our race. We want to know if you will take us in the service?”2 With

caution, the newly freed black soldiers took great advantage of their manumission and began

forming their own military units within their army. However, in their early stages of being

enlisted, the black soldiers were discriminated, furthermore, relegated to lower positions before

there was a shift when the military evolved. When the black soldiers encountered the evolution,

they formed different regiments under the United States Colored Troops, where they were well-

equipped for combat.

Though the Emancipation Proclamation seemed promising to all slaves, it did not entirely

close slavery’s chapter in history immediately. Therefore, the strength, patriotism, and power that

the black soldiers demonstrated in the war impacted the limitation of manumission and soon set

all of them free. In an excerpt from Christian A. Fleetwood’s – former African American

1
The American Yawp, South Carolina Declaration of Secession (The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School, 1860)
2
The American Yawp, William Henry Singleton, a formerly enslaved man, recalls fighting for the Union (University
of North Carolina, 1922)
sergeant-major – account of African American soldiers throughout US history, he emphasized,

“The immense addition to their fighting force…, the quick recognition of them by Great Britain,

and the fact that the heart of the Negro was with the South but for slavery…”3 By making this

description of the degree of the product of the black soldiers and their determination, he

elaborates that their allegiance to their country and homeland in the South was quickly

recognized by the British and deserved the utmost reverence. Following their desire for a free

world, the slaves who fled to Union lines had already weakened slavery, and demonstrating their

strong will to risk their life by fighting for their country led to a shifted perception of black

people, granting them the freedom they deserve.

Through the voyages of the enslaved African Americans from slavery to the Union Army

and given that slaves were the main sources of the economic forces of slavery (from the previous

agriculture of tobacco and the Cotton Boom) without their laborers on their plantations, slavery

significantly weakened. With the founding of the Underground Railroad by Harriet Tubman,

William Still, Levi Coffin, and Thomas Garrett, the escape to Union Lines and non-slaveholding

states became more possible. Slavery took a turn when slave masters were met with their slaves’

economic sabotage. In Richard M. Reid’s Freedom For Themselves: North Carolina’s Black

Soldiers in the Civil War Era, he explains, “By the end of the conflict, some 179,000 black

soldiers and 9,500 black sailors were in uniform… perceived to have served depended both on

how well they fought and on white America’s willingness to recognize their achievements” 4 The

slave masters’ justification of their necessity for economic prosperity became heavily disregarded

because the brave African Americans saw eye to eye in their initiative to fighting for the wider

cause and incentive.

3
Christian A. Fleetwood et al., The Negro as a soldier (Howard University Print, 1895)
4
Richard M Reid, Freedom for Themselves: North Carolina's Black Soldiers in the Civil War Era (University of North
Carolina Press, 2008)
 Consequently, the violent and bloody Civil War received an abundance of international

attention at measurable costs. The Thirteenth Amendment was a famous document that abolished

enslavement thirty days after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, on January 31, 1865.

The performance of both sides of the war caused them to clash with one another leading to the

passing of the Thirteenth Amendment. In the book, The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and

the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction, by James M. McPherson, he describes, “Most

abolitionists reacted with qualified jubilation to the Emancipation Proclamation and the

subsequent events culminating in the Thirteenth Amendment…proceeded not from an

overwhelming conviction on the part of the American people of its justice and humanity, but

from "military necessity."5 McPherson elucidates that the skillfulness of the groups of black

soldiers had been immensely recognized by the white officers, which served as a gateway to the

Union’s victory and the Thirteenth Amendment. The service of the soldiers affected the

politicians’ perspective on black people and began to address the issue of slavery.

To seek protection and refuge by the Union forces, the escapees were looking for outlets

and confidential routes to the Union lines. Instead of sending them back to their slave masters,

the defense forces resorted to claiming them as “contraband of war” to protect them and give

them an opportunity to fight in the war. The term was coined to refer to the status of escaped

slaves who recently affiliated themselves with the Union army. In the excerpt, General Benjamin

F. Butler Reacts to Self-Emancipating People, 1861, “I have therefore determined to employ…

the able-bodied persons in the party, issuing proper food for the support of all, and charging

against their services the expense of care and sustenance of the non-laborers…”6 This implies

5
James M. McPherson, The Struggle for Equality : Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction
(Princeton University Press, 2014)
6
The American Yawp, General Benjamin F. Butler Reacts to Self-Emancipating People, 1861 (National Archives,
1861)
that the hospitality with General Butler treated the escaped slaves indicates the slow demise of

the system of slave. As slave masters and generals hold different levels in society, the

slaveholders could not do much without knowing about their plantation workers’ whereabouts.

Both parties gained positive outcomes, awarding each other promising opportunities, while

slaveholders place more pressure on plantation work regarding missing workers, weakening

slavery.

In hopes of putting a permanent roadblock on slavery, the slaves who joined the Union

forces probably knew that they would make a dense mark in US history with their contribution to

the abolition of slavery. With what spread from the plantations to the Underground Railroad,

newspapers, debates, international news, and more, the participation of black soldiers in the Civil

War received global attention making an impact by day. In order to not only distance themselves

from but end slavery, many black people became soldiers in the Union, risking their lives and

resulting in over 36,000 casualties. Consequently, the deliberate effort of black soldiers in the

Civil War will always be admired and receive recognition for giving birth to the legal abolition

of slavery.