African American Runaways In The 1860's

In the 1860’s, slavery was a well known thing around the whole country, where the

whites were excepted as the superior race versus the black, who were treated very

poorly by the. In 1862, Congress passed a law allowing African Americans to serve in

the army, called the Emancipation Proclamation. The African American runaways would

be especially useful as a guide or spy because of their knowledge of the south. Neraly

200,000 African Americans served in all. Although they were unexperienced and

expected to lose, they still felt the need to fight for their patriotism.

Even though African Americans were not permitted to fight in the war, they still felt the

need to. One reason why African Americans fought in the civil war was for

Another reason why they volunteered was for the reward. The reward they

recieved was to get paid a good amount of money at the time (10$), they got food to eat,

and they got new uniforms to wear. And lastly, African Americans felt the need to

volunteer in the war was for the feel of leadership. Some of the runaway slaves that

would be fighting in the war were especially helpful to the crew because they’ve seen

and had knowledge of the South, so they could be used as spies. Therefor, the

runaway’s felt a sense of pride in their knowledge of the South, and also felt like leaders

for all of the other slaves.

While the Africans felt they would be handed the gift of patriotism while fighting in the war, they also experienced discrimination along the way. One way they were being

discriminated was by not getting their supplies. While regular war volunteermen (other

soldiers) got their guns at the beginning of training, the Africans recieved there’s way

later in the camp, just because of their skin. They also didn’t get the shoes they needed

to walk in because of a racist Quarter Master Kendrick who keeps the supplies