From the earliest slave revolts in this country over 400 years ago, African Americans strove to gain full participation in every aspect of political, economic, and social life in the United States.

Records show that Africans were captured, sold, and enslaved in the English colonies in North America continuously after 1619. Many African Americans fought against bondage by stealing from their owners, escaping, committing arson, and even homicide. They broke tools, injured work animals, and pretended to be ill in the field or on the auction block. As a last resort, some committed suicide or killed their newborn children so they would not be sold off or live their lives as slaves. Some slaves and free blacks tried to use the courts, publications, and other means available in white society to improve their condition. They petitioned Congress, presidents, and legislatures. Some saved enough money to buy their own freedom. Free blacks did what they could to help their brothers and sisters in bondage.

Slaves were considered possessions until 1787, when the United States Constitution made each male slave equal to three-fifths of a white man for taxation and representation in government. By proclamation and out of military necessity to put added pressure on the Confederacy, President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in 1862 during the Civil War. Despite its immediate effects, the Emancipation Proclamation did not change the legal basis of slavery, which could be abolished only by state action or a constitutional amendment.

Thousands of African Americans willingly participated in military actions in the Civil War, and many more offered support behind the lines. Southern blacks who volunteered for the Confederate Army were assigned to heavy labor and forbidden to carry weapons and engage in combat. As the war turned against the South, more and more blacks fled to the Union forces.

In the North, noted speakers such as Frederick Douglass urged free blacks to fight for the Union, and worked to convince the government to use them. In spite of the army's reluctance, the Union Navy made extensive use of black sailors. By 1862, the courage and ability in battle displayed by African American soldiers changed the government's policy, and it began to enlist soldiers into segregated, all-black units. At least 180,000 black men enlisted in the Union Army, 30,000 in the navy.

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