This paper examines and compares the roles African Americans played in the American War for Independence and the Civil War. Beginning with the colonial context that made slavery a legal institution, the paper traces how free blacks, slaves, and freedmen joined both wars despite initial resistance from military and government leaders. It highlights key battles, the evolution of official policy, and the shift in attitudes among white soldiers toward African-American valor. The paper concludes that while both wars centered on the struggle for freedom, significant differences existed in scale of participation and the degree to which African-American courage was initially accepted.
America was founded on the principle of freedom. With this in mind, it comes as little surprise that both the War for Independence and the Civil War share the common thread of struggle for freedom. Both wars sought to overcome oppression, and both encompassed a vision of basic human rights grounded in a sense of justice. Another similarity these two wars shared was the heroic participation of African Americans in the fight for freedom. This paper compares and contrasts their involvement in these two similar, yet distinct, wars.
To understand African-American involvement in the Revolutionary War, one must first paint a picture of what colonial life was like. Colonists faced the labor-intensive task of carving out a life on a new continent under harsh conditions unlike many had ever experienced. Everything had to be created from scratch — roadways, housing, farmland, and more. In addition, company backers who paid the way for many colonists and continued to supply them with goods expected a return on their investment in the form of exported goods from the New World.
Colonists were in desperate need of laborers to accomplish these enormous tasks, and as a result the American colonists turned to the use of indentured servants and slaves.
As the colonies grew into the original Thirteen Colonies, labor demands intensified. Many of the indentured servants were eventually freed, leaving slaves to continue the work. In order to meet this increasing demand, slavery was legalized in America in 1650.
As war broke out in the New World, African Americans — whether free, enslaved, or formerly enslaved, both men and some women — took up arms and fought alongside white colonists in an effort to establish independence from British rule. Approximately 5,000 African Americans served in the War for Independence. "Some carried muskets. Still others served as substitutes for white men as messengers, guides, teamsters, laborers, and spies. They served not only in the Army, but in the Continental Navy as well. And most served in integrated units" ("Revolutionary War").
Interestingly, General George Washington initially refused to allow slaves in military service. He felt it would be devastating to slave owners to have their slaves leave the plantations to enlist. As a slave owner himself — Washington owned more than 300 slaves — he had intimate knowledge of what this would mean for his personal holdings should a number of his slaves take up arms and leave his service. Washington's stance was not rooted in doubts about the courage of enslaved men, but in his belief that their departure would harm the American economy ("Revolutionary War").
However, this did not stop slaves from joining the military. In New England, many slaves ran away to join the army; others enlisted in place of their masters, a practice that would continue up to the time of the Civil War. Finally, after Washington discovered that the Royal Governor of Virginia, John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, was actively enlisting slaves and indentured servants into the British army with the promise of freedom to all who would fight for the King, Washington lifted the ban on slave enlistment. All African Americans were subsequently allowed to fight for the freedom the country now enjoys.
When the Civil War came about, slavery was still in effect and, obviously, in question. "With President Abraham Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, the Civil War became a war to save the union and to abolish slavery" (History of African-Americans in the Civil War).
"Policy shifts allow 180,000 Black soldiers to serve Union"
"Fort Wagner, Honey Springs, and Island Mound prove courage"
"Scale and acceptance differed; both showed equal valor"
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