The Civil War amid the South and the North - Essay Example

The Civil War (1860-65) between the South and the North involved the First Battle of Bull Run (1861), Antietam (1862), and Gettysburg (1863). The Emancipation Proclamation only freed some slaves, and later Northern Black slaves fought for the Union. Both White and black women were actively involved in the Civil War. They maintained homes and plantations, acted as spies, and fought in battles. Eventually, the North benefited from the war more than the South in terms of industry and infrastructure, and consolidation of government.

Even so, they still suffered racial tension and an insufficient labor force. The war ended on April 7, 1865, and Lincoln’s assassination came days later. Lincoln’s proclamation of amnesty in 1863 had both positives and negatives, although its main aim was to shorten the war. There was a quick return of the confederate states to the Union and full pardon to confederates. It ignored the plight of slaves and Black suffrage, and they were still “property”. The vision of radical republicans, supported by the Freedmen’s Bureau, was to remake the south by empowering Blacks through education and offering them land.

However, Andrew Johnson, who took over the presidency after Lincoln’s assassination, promoted White supremacy. All the same, the Civil Rights Act Of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Fifteenth Amendment addressed the situation of the Blacks.