What was the main reason Southerners did not want to use African Americans as soldiers!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
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Position:Home>History> African American soldiers?Question: African American soldiers!? What was the main reason Southerners did not want to use African Americans as soldiers!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The United States Civil War began as an effort to save the Union, and ended in a fight to abolish slavery!. This battle for emancipation, some would argue, was won by the slaves themselves!. While this remains a debate, it is clear that the slaves did contribute significantly to their own freedom!. By running from masters to become contrabands for the Union, laboring behind the scenes for the Northern armies, and risking their lives on the battlefront, the slaves centralized the issue of freedom and played a key role in the North's victory!. (New York Public Library 1)!. In actual numbers, African-American soldiers comprised 10% of the entire Union Army!. Losses among African-Americans were high, and from all reported casualties, approximately one-third of all African-Americans enrolled in the military lost their lives during the Civil war!. (Park Net 5)!. African-American soldiers, despite doubt and prejudice by society, proved themselves to be formidable warriors on the battlefield!. They were just as deadly, if not deadlier, that their white counterparts!. They won many of the Civil War battles, and in doing so, won their independence!. "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, US, let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pockets, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States"Www@QuestionHome@Com wow!.!.!.well, because blacks were slaves in the South, and by arming them, training them and relying upon them in battle, they would have been undercutting their entire argument that blacks were inferior to whites, and thus undercutting slavery!. In addition!? They would have had tens of thousands of armed black veteran soldiers around!. How are you going to put them back to work as slaves and rape their wives and daughters and sell their children away when they're trained and combat hardened troops!? In short, it would have presented the South with a completely unacceptable level of risk (look up Nat Turner's revolt, please), while also completely undercutting the phisosophical pinnings of their culture!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The South supported slavery!. It didn't make sense to ask a slave to defend the South, then go back to being a slave!. The South also felt that a slave would make a poor soldier, and might even rebel against the army when out in the field!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |