If we are not citizens, then what are we? To 1861 -- A white man's war? April 1861-December 1862 -- Decision time: January-August 1863 -- Contracts of war: September 1864-April 1865 -- Making black service matter: 1865-1883.
Summary:
"Understanding debates over African Americans' enlistment exposes a formative moment in the development of American citizenship: black Northerners' key demand was that military service earn full American citizenship for black men and women, a term that had no precise definition prior to the Fourteenth Amendment. In articulating this demand, Taylor argues, black Northerners participated in the remaking of American citizenship itself--unquestionably one of the war's most important results"-- Provided by publisher.
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