Download The United States Colored Troops: The History and Legacy of the Black Soldiers Who Fought in the American Civil War AudioBook Free
After the Battle of Fort Sumter made clear that there would be warfare between the North and South, support for both the Union and Confederacy rose. Two days after the surrender of the fort, Leader Abraham Lincoln given a call-to-arms asking for 75,000 volunteers, a need that would count on Northern state governments to organize and coach their men. Some Americans had hoped to avert warfare, many abolitionists had come to view war as inevitable, and the news headlines from Fort Sumter suggested a chance to rectify the country's original sin through the beat of the South. Though abolitionists were a minority that was usually confined to New Great britain and often top quality as radicals, they had long sought to get rid of slavery and secure basic civil rights for blacks. One of the most famous abolitionists, the escaped slave Frederick Douglass, understood immediately what kind of opportunity the Civil Battle presented to all or any blacks, whether they were slaves or free: "Once allow black man get after 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 the planet that can deny that he has attained the right to citizenship."
