The Unseen Experience Of The American Civil War

The American Civil War. A dangerous time of disagreement that turned into a massive bloodshed. Many lives were lost, and many were either endangered or ruined. But why did these people fight each other? Why did they choose to kill each other? Why did they choose to go to war?

The answer lies in the lives of the African American people. As it is widely known, with the colonization of America, migrating Europeans needed more workers. They chose to transport the Africans of that time to America, where they were enslaved. They worked hard for little money, and did not have any rights of their own. They could be bought and sold, as if they were mere objects, not people. Many families were separated and many people died in the blazing heat, cold winters, or from the excruciating workload. Some of these conditions are described in novels such as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which try to depict the conditions in which African Americans lived.

With the election of President Abraham Lincoln, the leader of the Republican Party, tensions rose rapidly in a couple of days. President Lincoln thought that African Americans should not be slaves and that they should posses rights of their own. The southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and later on Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee) formed or joined The Confederacy. The Confederacy depended on slavery and thought that it couldn’t function properly without it. The other states, known as the Union, disapproved of the slavery as an institution in America. Soon, a war conflict erupted.

The war itself bore a great influence on the lives of the African American people. Those who sought refuge in the lands of The Union were set free, although at the beginning, some people thought they had to return the slaves to their former masters. These African Americans were lucky not to have to suffer the horrible fate of those who never felt freedom, never took a whip of air not controlled by their owner. They never felt the grass beneath their feet, knowing that they could do whatever pleased their hearts. They had to stay under the control of the people who owned them. In some cases, slaves were born slaves and died as slaves. Their treatment was rough, and they were often accused and tortured for crimes they never committed.

After the war, the African Americans were slaves no more, although it would take a long time and a lot of effort for them to gain rights of their own and be treated equally and with justice.