The video explores the American Civil War, emphasizing its staggering toll with over 750,000 lives lost, surpassing the combined fatalities of several other major wars. It provides a detailed analysis of the war's causes, underscoring slavery's central role as confirmed by statements from the confederacy itself, despite alternative explanations like states' rights or economic concerns. Additionally, it delves into the involvement of black soldiers and people in the war, a topic often overlooked but crucial for understanding the war's full impact.

One highlight is the journey of black soldiers who initially faced rejection due to a 1792 federal law barring them from military service. The video traces the evolving role of black troops, encouraged by the emancipation proclamation, which strategically reframed the war as a fight against slavery, curbing European support for the confederacy. Furthermore, notable figures like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass are spotlighted for their significant contributions in recruitment and espionage, which were pivotal for the Union's success.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. seceded [sɪˈsiːdɪd] - (verb) - Formally withdraw from membership in a federal union, alliance, or a political or religious organization. - Synonyms: (withdraw, separate, break away)

So we should be clear from the very beginning about why the southern states seceded and why the civil war came to be fought.

2. emancipation [ɪˌmæn.sɪˈpeɪ.ʃən] - (noun) - The process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions; liberation. - Synonyms: (liberation, freeing, release)

Additionally, they were shifting international dynamics, shaping Lincoln's calculus. All of this led to the emancipation proclamation, a document that is widely misunderstood.

3. proclamation [ˌprɒk.ləˈmeɪ.ʃən] - (noun) - A public or official announcement, especially one dealing with a matter of great importance. - Synonyms: (declaration, announcement, statement)

All of this led to the emancipation proclamation, a document that is widely misunderstood.

4. contraband [ˈkɒn.trə.bænd] - (noun) - Goods that have been imported or exported illegally. - Synonyms: (illegal goods, smuggled goods)

The confiscation acts got that name because acquiring runaways meant capturing enemy property. Accordingly, the camps became commonly known as contraband campsite.

5. caste [kæst] - (noun) - Each of the hereditary classes of Hindu society, distinguished by relative degrees of ritual purity or pollution and of social status. - Synonyms: (class, division, rank)

It also threatened to disrupt the south social order, which depended on the work and caste position of enslaved people.

6. confederacy [kənˈfɛd.ər.ə.si] - (noun) - A league or alliance, especially of confederate states. - Synonyms: (alliance, union, coalition)

On the opposite side of the confederacy was the federal army, who was fighting to preserve the Union after the southern states had begun seceding.

7. calculus [ˈkæl.kyə.ləs] - (noun) - A particular method or system of calculation or reasoning. - Synonyms: (calculation, reasoning, computation)

Additionally, they were shifting international dynamics, shaping Lincoln's calculus.

8. espionage [ˈɛs.pi.əˌnɑːʒ] - (noun) - The practice of spying or using spies to obtain political or military information. - Synonyms: (spying, intelligence, surveillance)

Her intel, Tubman discovered and alerted the Union army of where confederate enemies were hiding along the shore and where they planted torpedoes in the water.

9. confiscation [ˌkɒn.fɪˈskeɪ.ʃən] - (noun) - The action of taking or seizing someone's property with authority; seizure. - Synonyms: (seizure, appropriation, expropriation)

Even before the emancipation proclamation was signed, the confiscation acts passed by Congress in 1861 and 1862 made it possible for black people to obtain freedom if they joined these camps.

10. surrendered [səˈrɛndirɪd] - (verb) - Cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority. - Synonyms: (capitulate, yield, submit)

The war effectively ended in April 1865, when General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate army surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox courthouse in Virginia.

Black Americans in the Civil War - Crash Course Black American History #18

Hi, I'm Clint Smith, and this is Crash Course Black American History. Today, we'll be discussing the bloodiest war in American history, one that many historians now claim took the lives of over 750,000 people. More Americans died in this war than in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican American War, the Spanish American War, the Korean War, the Gulf War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan all combined. It is a war that would change and define the trajectory of this country. We're talking about the Civil War.

You've likely heard stories about the Civil War, about the so-called great generals, the gory battles, the decimated cities. It has been the subject of thousands of books, documentaries watched by millions around the world, and even the inspiration for a vast community of people who enjoy reenacting great battles of the war. But something that doesn't get as much attention, at least not as much attention as it deserves, is the role that Black soldiers and more generally, Black people played in the war. But today, that is going to be the center of our attention.

For such an important and consequential moment in American history, there sure are a lot of different interpretations about what the Civil War was fought over. So we should be clear from the very beginning about why the southern states seceded and why the Civil War came to be fought. You ready? The Civil War was about slavery. Some people might say states' rights. Well, yeah, the southern states' rights to keep their enslaved workers. Some people might say economics. Yes, the desire for southern planters to maintain an economy that relied on the labor of millions of enslaved people. But don't take my word for it.

All we have to do is look at the statements different governments and government representatives made as they were leaving the Union themselves. A state like Mississippi said, quote, our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery, the greatest material interest of the world. A state like Louisiana felt the people of the slave-holding states are bound together by the same necessity and determination to preserve African slavery. Or Texas, who said the African race had no agency in their establishment, that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race. Or we can take the words of the vice president of the confederacy, Alexander Stevens, who in his infamous cornerstone speech in 1861, stated that slavery was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution, and that the confederacy was founded on the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man.

To understand what the confederacy was fighting for, all we have to do is look at what they said for themselves. On the opposite side of the confederacy was the federal army, who was fighting to preserve the Union after the southern states had begun seceding. And while the army was not stating outwardly at the beginning of the war that they were fighting to free the enslaved, the shadow of slavery hung over every battle and every decision over the course of the conflict. The tenor of the war and the reason it continued evolved and became clearer over time, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

When the war first broke out at Fort Sumter in April of 1861, Black people didn't want to just sit by and watch because they perhaps had the most to lose. Thousands volunteered to fight on the side of the Union when the war first erupted, but they were turned away. A federal law dating all the way back to 1792 barred Black people from bearing arms in the US army, even though they had served in the American Revolution and in the War of 1812. The Lincoln administration debated the idea of recruiting Black troops into the Union forces, but they were concerned that such a move would prompt the border states to secede.

Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were these kind of in-between players in the war because they stayed in the Union, but also kept their enslaved workers. Additionally, beliefs of Black inferiority were widespread among white military officials, both on the Confederate and the Union side. They believed Black men to be too cowardly, too weak-minded, and too likely to give away sensitive military information under pressure. There was also a fear that if you gave Black men guns, they would desert and perhaps use those weapons to attack white people.

Regardless of the military shutting Black Americans out, many who wanted to fight banded together on their own terms, forming groups in places like New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. A few brave Black men and women in the south also joined military units. In South Carolina, General David Hunter put an order in place that organized a group of runaways to become part of the first South Carolina regiment. In Missouri, General John C. Fremont did something similar. Both units, however, were quickly disbanded by the government.

But over the course of the war, Lincoln's position on the role of Black soldiers began to change. The Union was having a more difficult time recruiting white volunteers to serve in the army for a war that many in the country initially thought would only last a few weeks. And Black abolitionists like Frederick Douglass had long been pushing Lincoln to make Black soldiers a part of the war effort. Additionally, they were shifting international dynamics, shaping Lincoln's calculus. All of this led to the emancipation proclamation, a document that is widely misunderstood.

Lincoln's proclamation was a military strategy with multiple aims. It prevented European countries from supporting the confederacy by framing the war in moral terms and making it explicitly about slavery, something that Lincoln had previously backed away from. As a result, France and Britain, which had contemplated supporting the confederacy, ultimately refused to do so because of each country's anti-slavery positions. The proclamation allowed the Union army to recruit Black soldiers, and it also threatened to disrupt the south social order, which depended on the work and caste position of enslaved people.

Lincoln had actually presented the proclamation to his cabinet in July of 1862, but William H. Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state, told the president that if they announced it at that moment, it would look like a sign of weakness and desperation. Instead, he urged Lincoln to wait until the Union won a significant victory on the battlefield. This made sense to Lincoln, so he waited. The moment came on September 17, 1862, when Union troops halted the advance of the confederate forces in the Battle of Antietam. Just a few days afterwards, Lincoln publicly announced a preliminary version of the emancipation proclamation, which told the confederate states that they had 100 days by January 1, 1863, to rejoin the Union, and if they didn't, their slaves would be declared thenceforward and forever free.

The confederacy obviously didn't listen, and on January 1, Lincoln signed the proclamation. The document transformed the war effort, and people like Frederick Douglass went to work recruiting Black soldiers. A war undertaken and brazenly carried on for the perpetual enslavement of colored. Mendez Douglas wrote in a broadside in 1863, calls logically and loudly for colored men to help suppress it. By the end of the war, the Union had more than 186,000 Black volunteers, 134,000 of them coming from slave states.

What's more, over the course of the war, over 70% of Black men in the north who were of age would serve in the Union army. The truth of the matter is that Black people had been fighting for freedom long before the war. Still, the Civil War did open up a whole slew of new opportunities for them to seize freedom. Untold numbers of runaways would find their way into the Union army camps and seek refuge. Even before the emancipation proclamation was signed, the confiscation acts passed by Congress in 1861 and 1862 made it possible for Black people to obtain freedom if they joined these camps.

Runaways helped the Union war effort by joining units in unofficial capacities, working as servants, and some were even able to work on land and union strongholds for a wage. The confiscation acts got that name because acquiring runaways meant capturing enemy property. Accordingly, the camps became commonly known as contraband campsite.

Speaking of contraband camps, that brings us to Mrs. Susie Baker King Taylor, the only Black woman to publish a book reflecting on her time spent in the contraband camps during the Civil War. The book was called Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops late First South Carolina Volunteers. The book itself details her many adventures, facing death on several occasions and the work she did as an educator. Taylor was the first Black American to teach formerly enslaved people publicly in a school in Georgia, a school that she helped to found.

As Black men either fought or provided manual labor toward the war effort, Black women would often do medical work, cook for soldiers, or take care of the children. But the story of a woman named Harriet Tubman makes it evident that Black women's contributions were numerous and that they were engaged in both combat and non-combat roles.

Let's go to the thought bubble. Harriet Tubman is widely remembered for her work leading people to freedom via the Underground Railroad. Not only was she someone who helped enslaved people forge a path to freedom by going back and forth between the north and the south on multiple occasions, but she also served as a spy during the Civil War. Like a legit spy, Tubman was paid by the Secret Service and used those funds to recruit other Black folks to join and help gather information about the Confederates.

Black people made great spies during the war, even if it was because of some not-so-great reasons. Like I said earlier, white people especially, but not exclusively southerners, really underestimated Black people's intelligence. Not only did they think enslaved Black people weren't brave enough or clever enough to be spies, but often they simply treated Black people, especially Black women, like they were invisible. As a result, Black folks would sometimes be in the literal room where military officers were discussing war strategy or while they were sharing new developments with their families over dinner.

Through her intel, Tubman discovered and alerted the Union army of where Confederate enemies were hiding along the shore and where they planted torpedoes in the water. And on top of being a spy, Tubman led a covert military operation, helping Colonel James Montgomery plan a raid to help free enslaved people along the Combahee River in South Carolina. On the morning of June 2, 1863, Tubman and three gunboats full of soldiers set fire to the buildings and the bridges near the river so the Confederates couldn't use them.

They ended up freeing 750 enslaved men, women, children, and babies, and they didn't lose a single soldier in the fight. Thanks, Thought Bubble. After being allowed to serve in the Union army by the emancipation proclamation, Black soldiers would make up 10% of the Union forces and fought valiantly throughout the remainder of the Civil War. Seeing these Black soldiers fight and die for the Union changed the minds of many, including President Lincoln, about whether Black people deserve full citizenship in this country.

Our go-to guy, Frederick Douglass, who feels like he has a quote for everything, said once, let the Black man get upon his person the brass letter us. Let him get an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket. There is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship. The war effectively ended in April 1865, when General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate army surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox courthouse in Virginia.

Countless Black Americans remained in bondage even after Lee's surrender. And on June 19 of 1865, where what we now know as Juneteenth General Gordon Granger let 250,000 enslaved people in Texas know, through General Order Number Three, that they were free. And some in states like Kentucky and Delaware were still waiting even after that. As historian W. Caleb McDaniel has said about the days, weeks, and years following Juneteenth, slavery did not end cleanly or on a single day. It ended through a violent, uneven process.

The war was done, but the struggle for black freedom was, in many ways, just beginning. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.

American Civil War, Black History, Slavery, Education, Inspiration, Leadership, Crashcourse