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The Negro's Civil War In Tennessee Summary

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The article, “The Negro’s Civil War in Tennessee, 1861-1865” by Bobby L. Lovett, was published in “The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 61, No. 1”. Lovett is a professor of History, former Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Tennessee State University and a native of
Memphis. In the article, Lovett writes about all of the contributions that the black Tennessean’s made during the Civil War in obtaining their freedom. He also writes just how horrendous the racial conditions and physical punishments were. A decision was made to draft black men for military service on June 28, 1861 by the Tennessee State General Assembly and it was the first such act in the United States. There were a few provisions to go along with this act; all free black males between the ages of fifteen and fifty were eligible for military labor units. Each month, the men would receive eighteen dollars plus rations and clothing (no uniforms were given). Those who refused military service would be arrested and charged with a punishable misdemeanor. When this act was passed, all of the black men knew they were definitely going to war. …show more content…

Some Union Army officers had begun to retain slaves, unofficially, due to rebels, traitors, secessionists, and southern-rights men angering those officers by searching their camps for their fugitive slaves. Many of the black men were told to build forts, dig entrenchments, to maintain important roads and railroads in Tennessee. The black laborer became important to the Union Army of Tennessee for two reasons; the army looked upon the use of contraband blacks to release white troops for combat duty and to hold the strategic area of Tennessee the Union Army had to increase its manpower anyway

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