Women During the Civil War Essay Example for Free

Women During the Civil War Essay Women during the Civil War helped as nurses, cooks, solider, and spies. Women in the North also worked for the United States Sanitary Commission. â€Å"The primary national relief organization, coordinating donations to the Union. † The role southern women played during the Civil War was also to cook, be spies, the duties of the man while in his absence. â€Å"Women worked in munitions plants, as clerks in government offices, and as a sales force in retail businesses. † Clara Barton a famous Civil War nurse, she followed the troops into battle and worked alongside doctors. Barton later founded the American Red Cross (Schultz, 2012). The war affected both the women on Union and the Confederate side because in the absence of the men, women had to ensure all the duties were completed. Black slaves fighting during the Civil War concerned many individuals. People were fearful of the idea of arming a Black man. In case they would revolt back and kill for their freedom. People feared the idea of the black slaves willing to do anything to become free. Black slaves played a huge role in the American Civil War this was mainly because slaves were a large population of the South. Nearly 3. 5 million people in the Confederate side were slaves (Schultz, 2012). Black slaves were offered an opportunity to become free by serving in the war, but this enticement was only offered as a last resort, because of the desperate need of men to fight the war. The only down side to this was that even freed many blacks were not equal to white men. Black solider rarely ever became officers and the only time they command white men was when their whiteness was not so evident (The Civil War,2013) They were not given equal pay, or allowed to vote. While many slave owners did not want to arm black slaves they desperately needed help in fighting.