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Today in 1861, the Civil War began when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, S.C. Nearly 200,000 black men served as Union soldiers during the war. Neither side predicted that African Americans would transform the war into a battle for freedom. #ANationsStory 
Slavery and its expansion into the western territories divided the nation. Republican Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election with less than 40% of the popular vote & without winning southern states. News of his victory prompted a secession movement across the South. #ANationsStory
Slavery was deeply woven into the fabric of the United States and challenged the meaning of democracy. Enslaved people’s work formed an economic engine for the country. Bought and sold as property, enslaved people were valued at an estimated $2.7 billion in 1860. #ANationsStory
America’s promise of freedom is filled with contradiction. Perhaps no people understood this more than the roughly four million enslaved African Americans living in the U.S. before 1863. By 1862, Abraham Lincoln realized that to restore the Union, slavery must end. #ANationsStory
The Emancipation Proclamation committed the nation to ending slavery. By the end of the war, more than 186K African Americans joined the U.S. armed forces. Of these, an estimated 93,542 black soldiers were former slaves who understood firsthand the nation’s fight for freedom.
Search our Civil War collection for objects that reflect the fight for African American freedom: s.si.edu/2otQmsR #APeoplesJourney #ANationsStory
Learn more about how even after the Union won the Civil War, to abolish slavery and grant citizenship to African American men, the South sought to maintain racial segregation: #APeoplesJourney #ANationsStory
