This is an old revision of the document!
W. E B. Du Bois’s discomfort with the relationship between military service, manhood, and freedom seems at odds with the view held by many people at the time, particularly abolitionists, who imagined the military as not only the most direct path to political equality for African Americans and the swiftest route to slavery’s destruction but also as an indispensable vehicle for the internal transformation of slaves into free men and citizens. (Guy)
For the most part, historians have accepted Douglass’s equation of fighting and freedom. Shortly after the war, abolitionist-turned-historian William Wells Brown took the view of the army as a vehicle of black liberation and recounted the important contributions black troops made to the Union victory in The Negro in the American Rebellion: His Heroism and Fidelity.3 Brown’s history was part of a much larger movement to use black military sacrifice as leverage for political rights, particularly voting, which animated many of the postwar debates over Reconstruction on both the national and grassroots levels. The political importance of this history continued after Reconstruction’s disappointing end. (Guy)
Yet if military service ushered in a new world of freedom, it did so unevenly. Although soldiering enabled black men to make claims on the state in new and powerful ways, building a political identity on the foundation of military service proved unstable. As Mary Frances Berry notes in her study of how the legal status of African Americans changed as a result of their Civil War service, when black soldiers were no longer needed to secure a military victory for the Union, the impetus to sustain their rights as citizens faded. Thus, the gains won in large part through black men’s military sacrifice, including the right to vote, receded all too quickly. (Guy)
During the Civil War, many African American men chose to enlist in the Union army as a way to secure their civil rights. If they served alongside white soldiers in the army, it would be much harder to justify them being seen as lesser. This idea continued into the 20th century as the NAACP would launch the “Double V” campaign during World War II, which saw many African Americans enlisting in order to secure both victory at home, and victory abroad. (Tanner Gillikin)
Many African American activists, like Frederick Douglass, would push back against the notion that death and violence are the only way that enslaved people can become citizens. The Physical organization and use of violence was only part of the solution for Douglass, he also saw spiritual unity as equally important. One could gain manhood and liberty through the use of nonviolent tactics, which were equally as valid as the violent ones in ending racial supremacy. (Tanner Gillikin)
The reality of Black soldiers in the Union army was less than ideal. They often did similar or the same tasks that they would have done while in bondage. White Officers at best were inattentive ot the needs of black soldiers. There were rampant amounts of abuse and mistreatment from the officer corps towards these soldiers. (Tanner Gillikin)
Many abolitionists saw the military as a quick and direct route, for African Americans, towards political and social equality. W.E.B Dubois wrote “The slave pleaded, he was humble; he protected the women of the South, and the world ignored him. The slave killed white men; and behold, he was a man.” His quote expresses the true nature of the emancipation of Slaves. Dubois is emphasizing how the killing of Confederates, by slaves who were freed, began to create equality between races. (Hank L)
Post-Civil War, many prominent figures saw the army as a “vehicle for African American liberation. William Well Brown wrote about how important the contributions from African Americans were to the Union Army during the war. His writing was just a small part of a greater movement, one that stressed military sacrifice by blacks for political leverage. (Hank L)
When southern blacks were finally freed, many of them were worried and nervous rather than overjoyed. Many freed African American men knew they were going to be forced to enlist in the Union Army, rather than going home and taking care of their family. Most men were worried about having to leave their family because of the possibility of their family starving and not being able to perform the hard labor for their family. (Hank L)
Military service fulfilled the longing of Black men to challenge the stereotype of femininity believed to be associated with Black men in slavery. Many whites, on both sides of the slavery debate, believed that slaves were passive and thus effeminate. Black men were unable to protect and defend their families under slavery, contradicting the traditional expectations for masculinity. (Ezra C)
The service of black men in the Union army was viewed differently by W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglass. Du Bois struggled with the relationship that might happen between the manhood and freedom of black men and violence. Douglass, however, felt that the involvement of black men in the military was necessary for their own liberty. (Sarah M)