HIS 131 - American History I: African Americans in the Civil War

This title examines the experiences of African Americans during the Civil War, including enslaved people, free men and women, and those who contributed to the Union war effort.

More than 5,000 North Carolina slaves escaped from their white owners to serve in the Union army during the Civil War.

Some African-American historians advanced the additional theory of "self emancipation," arguing that slaves, in essence, had freed themselves by fleeing from their bondage in such huge numbers (a mass of humanity known as "contrabands") that Lincoln had no choice but to codify their flight by issuing his rather limp order.