CDL: The Right to Fight: Black Soldiers in the Civil War

The Right to Fight:  Black Soldiers in the Civil War

When the civil war was at its beginning the armies of the North and the South had no problems getting able bodied men to join up for the chance to fight for their rights.  However a much longer war then was predicted and huge casualties made it much more difficult for both armies to get new recruits and so they had to resort to a draft system to get white men in their armies.  However, there was one group of individuals that was begging to fight for the Union army and that was free blacks in the north and former slaves from the south.  These individuals knew that the war was generally about them and they felt that they needed to fight in it.  At first Abraham Lincoln would not consent to have black soldiers in the army but that gradually changed when the casualty list kept increasing and they needed even more soldiers.

James Henry Gooding was one such person who joined the 54^th Massachusetts Colored Regiment.  Gooding went out of his way to document his experience that was published by a newspaper.  He made it clear that black soldiers made less money and did not always receive the proper supplies and equipment.  While they did not receive the credit that was due to them black soldiers joined the army in droves.  Most black soldiers viewed this opportunity to refute the claims that made slavery such a big thing.  They also believed that slavery was at a turning point and it was up to the black soldiers to make sure that it would go away.  Gooding made it clear that having black soldiers could only help the black race because they would give them a chance to rid themselves of certain labels such as the “foul aspersion that they were not men.” (p. 532). 

At first most black regiments were thought to be less capably and even cowardly compared to white regiments but that thought was changed quickly when they saw how the black regiments fought in battle.  In fact as the text said, “Black courage under fire ended skepticism about the capabilities of African American troops.” (p.532)  While black regiments proved themselves in battle they still faced discrimination.  At first black troops were only given jobs of manual labor and were not allowed to fight.  They also received a subpar amount of pay compared to the white soldiers.  While Gooding did not like the fact that they could not fight he still believe that every little bit counted and even manual labor was useful.  The pay issue was a huge button for black soldiers and Gooding wrote that his whole regiment refused to accept the pay that was not equal.  Gooding even wrote to President Lincoln to explain his reasoning on the subject and got the government to change their stance on the subject and in June 1864 equalized the pay of black soldiers and white soldiers.  These black soldiers learned a lot during their time in the Union army and even felt that they had earned the right to be citizens with all the rights and responsibilities associated with that.  They also felt that their time in the Union army also gave “African Americans not only to freedom but also to civil and political rights.” (p.533)  African American soldiers fought hard to help themselves and still faced discrimination and prejudice however they also learned to want better things for themselves and their children.  Many black soldiers learned to read and write whole in the army and became schoolteachers and others became politicians.  They were the backbone of the rebuilding effort to teach the former slaves a new way.  Education and learning how to live free were very important and black soldiers helped to lead the way. 

1.      If the war had not gone on so long and the casualty list had not been so high would Lincoln have allowed African American soldiers in the Union army? 

2.      Why were African American soldiers not given the right to fight immediately upon their addition into the Union army?  Why were they only allowed to do manual labor?      

 I

White Gold: The International Empire of Cotton

Jessica Lucas

White Gold:  The International Empire of Cotton

Cotton has been around for thousands of years but it wasn’t until a device was developed to separate the seeds from the cotton that it became a really big business.  The type of cotton that was grown in the southern states of America have sticky seeds inside the cotton that is really time consuming and difficult to remove.  This is something that made cotton difficult to cultivate and not as profitable to harvest.  Many different people attempted to develop a device that would remove the seeds from the fiber but it took a long time to find an invention that actually worked.  When Eli Whitney developed a machine that did so and it was very simple but it did what it needed to do.  This cotton gin worked to run through the fibers with wire teeth that rotated and pulled the cotton out without seeds (p. 444).  This invention made it very easy for those farmers to harvest much larger quantizes of cotton.  With this invention production increased substantially but now the farmers needed cheap labor in order to keep up with demand.  This led to slavery being a huge product of the southern states that relied on the cotton as it became one of their larger crops. 

This led to a major reliance on the south for the cotton.  Other areas of the country looked to the south for their cotton and this was a way that things like food and other merchandise made it into the south.  This invention also led to an increase in Europe’s reliance on cotton.  The southern cotton went all over the country in the United States and was also sold to places as far as England and France.  The numerous quantities of cotton that made it overseas drastically changed the way that they did business and increased the demand on higher production.  This completely changed the textiles industry from a private family based type into a much large scale with huge companies manufacturing these things.  Cotton became very big for England and the reliance on it was huge.  Once slavery was gone cotton was still a very large enterprise in the south.  The south seemed to own the market for years because of cotton exportation and development.  Large development and industrialization would simply not have occurred without the development of the cotton gin.  It was an extremely important invention that allowed countries to expand and develop.  It also made cotton very much more available and not just for the rich. 

1        

      1. Would  industrialized development of America and Europe have occurred without the invention of the cotton gin?

2.. What were the good things that occurred from the reliance that the South had on cotton?  What were some of the bad things that occurred based on the reliance that the South had on cotton?