Civil War is often described as a defining moment in U.S. history. It was the time that would change the American history. It was when the discriminated African Americans [former and present slaves of 1800s] would join side by side with their white brothers and fought for their freedom, while on the other hand, the white community was separating into two groups: the Union and the Confederates.

Abraham Lincoln was the president of that time, and his goal at the beginning was to negotiate with the Confederates to preserve the Prewar Union1, and to warn them that the war would break out if the Confederates made the first shot. First, Lincoln had no intention to emancipate the slaves, but the Confederates believed that he would one day interfere with the slavery, and so to preserve their rights of properties, they started the civil war to defeat the Unions. The Confederates made the first shot at Fort Sumner and along with the seven states from South Carolina to Texas [slavery supporter], they seceded from the Union. That was when US was divided into two.

Civil War went on, and the Confederates had advantages over the Union. They used slave labors to mass produce weapons, uniforms and food, so they did not need to give time for productions. “Lack of military success, hope that emancipated slaves might help meet the army’s growing manpower needs”2 changed Lincoln’s purpose of the civil war. He declared that all slaves within the slave-based states under Union‘s control would be emancipated. To gain their freedoms and to secure it, free blacks joined the Union army. Later, Lincoln allowed them to be integrated into higher rank like the whites, and few blacks begun to enroll in navy.  In that case, while the US itself was divided into two, in the north, blacks and whites were uniting to win the war, each with own purpose. African Americans hoped to free all their brothers and sisters from bondage, and the northerners aimed to abolish slavery and preserve the Union’s control.

Even after the Civil War ended with Union’s victory, some southerners, who still did not want to let go of controlling African Americans, came together and organized their own groups in the counties and created Black Codes3. They practiced Black Codes to restrict and restrain the rights of the blacks to get equal pay, and other equal opportunities as whites such as getting houses and living in the cities. The outcome of the civil war, which is freeing the blacks from unjust labor, made the southern aristocrats to find new ways to get back blacks under their command. So they bought lands, and hired blacks to work for them in farms for wages, but low wages and under strict commands.

Early in the 1866, Illinois’s senator, Lyman Trumbull proposed two bills, requesting that President Andrew Johnson’s policy should be changed. But the President rejected both bills, saying that if he changed the policy, it would be like taking away the states’ rights to “regulate their own affairs.”4   Plus he also argued that “blacks did not deserve the rights of citizenship.”5 Congress tried to gain rights for any races, but was not able to overrule the President’s law. But on June 1868, Congress came together and was able to persuade President Johnson to sign the 14th Amendment [citizen’s rights]. The Amendment also gave options to the southern sate counties; to give blacks rights to vote, or stop participating in House of Representatives. That way, during the reconstruction era, the Black Codes were destroyed and unlike before, blacks got more rights, and most whites stood up for everyone’s rights.

By: Kaung | ChitChat247.com | KMKBlog.com