Role Of Blacks In The Civil War

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Black Involvement in the Civil War
“We must fight now, not because we want to subjugate
the South but because we must,” (McPherson 486) was the cry
of the Northerners during slavery. Like Galations 5:1
states, ”It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burned again
by the yoke of slavery.” This means that we should stand
firm against everything that is wrong, because Jesus has set
everyone free from sin just like the Civil War set slaves
free from slavery. The Civil War, also known as the war
Between the States, was fought on American soil and was the
result of the disagreement between the South and the North
on slave issues. After the signing of the Emancipation
Proclamation it become a fight of freedom for blacks (Sawyer
15-18, Meltzer 73-82).
During the slave trade, African American were
transported by Europeans who planned to sell them as slaves.
If the slaves were weak or unhealthy they were often
abandoned. Nearly 50,000 blacks chained side-by side were
brought to America. They were placed in the slave market
when they arrived in America, and at auction white
property was often sold along with the slaves (Hughes
14-16).
Opponents of slavery, called Abolitionists, believed
slavery was immoral and the Declaration of Independence
should be applied to everyone, slaves as well as whites,
that they might enjoy the rights of “life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness” (Hughes 40-42, Meltzer 79-84).
The Civil War occurred for many reasons. One was the
election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United
States in 1860. The Southern Democrats did not accept
Lincoln as president, because they believed that his stand
against the expansion of slavery would ruin the South
(Encarta).
Another reason was the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which
allowed each new territory to decide whether the new state
would be a free state or a slave state. This lau...