Men of color! To arms!: race, gender, and citizenship in the Civil War era

Usually, scholarship on Civil War black soldiers has focused on conducting regimental histories that examines the particulars of wartime mobilization, frontline experiences, and their demobilization from the military. At the same time, scholars have also explored the postwar lives of Civil War veterans to understand what the long-term effects—physically, financially, and psychologically—of military service had on blacks who served.

Despite the previous studies on themes such as race, gender, and citizenship, scholars examining Civil War black military service have yet to explore who Northern black soldiers were as children and young men during violent and turbulent 1850s when blacks were repeatedly shown, whether through race riots, legislation, or the enforcement of racial discrimination and segregation policies, that they were not only inferior to whites, but were also not American citizens. Or, how military service impacted not only the soldiers, but their families and local communities during and long after the national conflict ended. Moreover, as my dissertation has shown, a number of men who would become Northern black soldiers had numerous individuals, including wives, children, siblings, and parents, who not only cared for them, but were also dependent on their wages to keep each household financially stable. Ultimately, by examining these issues one will uncover how numerous black men would willingly leave their loved ones and sacrifice their lives performing a citizenship responsibility—military service—even though their citizenship was denied.