Finding Answers on How Did Slavery Cause The Civil War

The Civil War, known as the “The War Between the States” was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America. It's well-known fact that the main cause of this war was slavery. In “How did slavery cause The Civil War ?” essay there is explanation of how this war was going on. The Confederate States of America was made up of eleven southern states that left the Union between 1860 and 1861 and formed their own country in order to protect the institution of slavery. The war began after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863 which freed enslaved black people. Many free black men volunteered to join the 54th Massachusetts Regiment believing that God would use their contributions in the war for the destruction of slavery and securing of equal rights and justice for blacks in America. In July of 1863, Licoln issued a proclamation that would protect black soldiers.

“It is the duty of every government to give protection to its citizens, of whatever class, color, or condition, and especially to those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public service. The law of nations and the usages and customs of war as carried on by civilized powers, permit no distinction as to color in the treatment of prisoners of war as public enemies. To sell or enslave any captured person, on account of his color, and for no offence against the laws of war, is a relapse into barbarism and a crime against the civilization of the age.”

This angered many Southerners who never saw black people as socially, politically, or intellectually equal to them and couldn’t fathom blacks being treated above the standard of slaves or superior to them by being memebers of the armed forces leading to the The Fort Pillow Massacre. This bloody event Fort pillow in Tennesse on April 12, 1864, was one of the wars worst atrocity against black troops. This fort on the east bank of the Mississippi river was the scene of the slaughtering of Black Union troops and white soliders who served alongside them, although many white denied it ever happening.

The Conferdate soliders were led into Fort Pillow by General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Despite having no military experience, he enlisted as a private and quickly rose to lieutenant general. Before the war, General Forrest gained wealthe as a slave trader, but never recorded his racial prejuidice. “Like many Confederates the General probably felt galled by the arming of runaways. Ignoring the Confederacy’s policy of treating black federals as rebillious or runaway slaves, he took the unsual, but practical step of offering to accept the entire Paducah garrison as prisoners of war. He did threatened that, if he had to assult the Fort, he would grant no quarter, a threat he had used twice before in 1862 to garner quick surrenders”

Under his command 2,500 Confederate soldiers were ordered to slaughter wounded black and whites soldiers that served with the black Union troops. He allowed wounded soldiers that did not die immediately, to be shot in the head; although they begged for their lives and surrender. 300 Black Union soliders were murdered, as well as their white Commander William F. Bradford.

White Americans refused to accept black troops in combat but permitted it because whites would prefer for a black man to die rather than a white man. Black soldiers endured discrimination and bitterness during the war such as, equal pay, segregated units, and lack of training and medical care. Black soldiers were commonly mistreated and racially discriminated before and after the massacre. “Captured black soldiers were abused and even murdered rather than treated as prisoners of war.”

After the war, colored men were rejected, and racism and segregation increased toward them. “Black Americans at the conclusion of the Civil War evinced justifiable confidence in their ability to reap the benefits and promises of the nation they had helped to regenerate for themselves and for members of their race, just at a moment when white Union soldiers’ opinions on the rights of African Americans were malleable, and when Confederates exhibited the least ability or inclination to resist any reconstructive measures, including racial reform.”

General Forrest was a cruel slave trader and a well known white supremacist. Despite having no military experience, he enlisted as a private and quickly rose to lieutenant general. Under his command 2,500 Confederate soldiers were ordered to slaughter wounded black and whites soldiers that served with the black Union troops. He allowed wounded soldiers that did not die immediately, be shot in the head; although they begged for their lives and surrender.

Bibliography

• Cimprich, John. Fort Pillow: A Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011), 72
• 'Fort Pillow.' Mrlincolnandfreedom.org. Accessed April 20, 2019. http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/civil-war/black-soldiers/fort-pillow/.
• Manning, Chandra. What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War. (New York: Vintage Civil War Library, 2008), 220
• John Cimprich, Fort Pillow: A Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011).
• Darlene Clark. Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold, The African-American Odyssey (Upper Saddle, River, NJ: Pearson, 2013), 274.
• Manning, Chandra. What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War. (New York: Vintage Civil War Library, 2008), 220