AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND THE U.S. CIVIL WAR

TENSION LEADS TO WAR (North vs. South) Tension grew as Northern states became industrialized and free territory. On the other hand, Southern states relied on agriculture and slavery. VS. NORTH SOUTH

TENSION LEADS TO WAR (North vs. South) Southern politicians demand ban upon even discussing abolition.

TENSION LEADS TO WAR (North vs. South) John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859) raised the level of tensions between North and South.

TENSION LEADS TO WAR (North vs. South) The election of 1860 made Abraham Lincoln president of the United States. Even though Lincoln was not an abolitionist and did not want to free any slaves, Southern politicians saw him as a threat.

TENSION LEADS TO WAR (North vs. South) As a result, South Carolina and ten other slave states left the United States. These rebel states formed the Confederate States of America (with its own White House and President Jefferson Davis.)

A WAR ABOUT UNION, NOT ABOUT SLAVERY Initially, Lincoln refused the service of black men who volunteered in the Union Army since the war was about union, not slavery. Frederick Douglass did not support Lincoln in the election.  

A WAR ABOUT UNION, NOT ABOUT SLAVERY White volunteers claimed that serving alongside black men would degrade them as white men.  

A WAR ABOUT UNION, NOT ABOUT SLAVERY By mid-1862, the Union was continuing to lose battles and men.

A WAR ABOUT UNION, NOT ABOUT SLAVERY The Militia Act of 1862 empowered the president to enroll black men in war service.

A WAR ABOUT UNION, NOT ABOUT SLAVERY Although Lincoln considered freeing slaves, he was also considered deporting African-Americans to Haiti and Central America.  

A WAR ABOUT UNION, NOT ABOUT SLAVERY More than 620,000 combatants and at least 50,000 civilians died in the Civil War.