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African American Civil War Museum Essay

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Site Visit African American Civil War Museum The African American Civil War Museum is located right here in Washington D.C., several blocks from Howard University. The entrance to this Museum is behind grand gate and a shadowy alley, virtually sending its visitors back in time to the civil war error. The general vibe given off by the museum, however, is of pride and acknowledgement rather than grief or sorrow. When I entered the museum, I was greeted by a guide name Alan who seemed to be very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the content of the museum. The museum was structured like a timeline, he explained, starting from the abduction and enslavement of Africans on the continent, going through the Middle Passage, and ending in the involvement …show more content…

Then he asked me, “so who do you think freed the slaves?” Drawing back to my knowledge in this class, in addition to my previous African American studies course, I quickly answered that “the slaves freed themselves.” He agreed, adding that enslaved African Americans saw the civil war as an opportunity to free themselves with the help from Union forces. During the bloody peak of this War, the Union realized that it was running out of troops to fight on its side in the civil war. The confederacy has proved to be a formidable opponent. In order to win the war decisively, Abraham Lincoln had almost no choice but to enlist the aid of (previously banned) African American soldiers, and they could only do so by offering blacks their freedom. This was the origin of the Emancipation proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation, said Alan, was actually a black enlistment proclamation. It didn’t free any slaves at all because the only slaves it liberated were under the jurisdiction of southern plantation owners who had no respect for the Union law anyways. Consequently, enslaved back people in confederate territories were not freed, but neither were those in Union territories. The Emancipation Proclamation nullified an 18th century law that banned the enlistment of black troops in fear that African Americans would use enlistment as a means to rebel against the

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