| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Steven J. Ramold. Slaves, Sailors, Citizens: African Americans in the Union Navy. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 2002. Pp. ix, 253. $32.00.

For decades, historians have debated and discussed the service of African Americans in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. There has, however, been no consensus regarding the contributions of these men or even the numbers in naval service. A full understanding has been elusive for several reasons. Few of the navy's records differentiate between the races, and African Americans enjoyed greater acceptance in the navy than in the army. Additionally, blacks had already established a tradition of service in the navy and, during the war, they participated in the ships for the most part as equals. Steven J. Ramold has dealt well with these difficulties to present a clear narrative of African-American naval service during the Civil War. 1

Despite the fact that African Americans participated in every American war from the Revolution to the Civil War, black men never enjoyed unfettered access to the navy. When it needed men, the navy turned to African Americans, and the Civil War was no exception. At the beginning of the war, only 2.5 percent of the sailors in the navy were African Americans. In the early months of the war hundreds of African Americans fled to the Union ships for protection, but it was not until September 1861 that Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles judiciously authorized the use of former slaves on board Union ships. The employment of escaped slaves, however, was complicated by existing federal laws. While blacks from northern states could join the Union armed forces, the largest population of African Americans was concentrated in the South, and the Lincoln administration was hindered by the Fugitive Slave Act and the Confiscation Acts. . . .

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