Owners could give their slaves to the Confederate Army for a promissory note of payment at a later time. They were assigned to menial labor tasks. They would make the redoubts and do other battle preparations. They would do the laundry and cook the food for the Confederate troops. They would even clean off the battle fields piling up the corpses of the deceased and then bury them.

They were heavily recruited by the Union Army after the Emancipation Proclamation of The North will use them much like the South used them. Menial labor tasks. They will train them to fight, but were very hesitant to allow them to do so. They were paid $10 for their service in which $3 was deducted for clothes, and whites were paid $13 with no charges for clothes. They were poorly equipped with improper uniforms. They were also given impossible tasks like attacking Fort Wagner. 180,000 African Americans will join the fighting in the North in the Civil War.

African Americans faced racism from both sides in this war. The South had put a bounty on runaway slaves before the war, however slaves were very much apart of everyday life. The North discriminated and segregated free blacks. When the Emancipation Proclamation is passed the South made a law that any captured black Union soldier would be killed and any white officer commanding them would also be killed. (Fort Pillow, Nathan Bedford Forrest) They are treated poorly in both armies. After the war African Americans will have to face many more instances of racism in daily life with the formation of the KKK and Black Codes (Jim Crow Laws) in the South