However, Black sailors were typically rated as “landsmen” rather than “sailors” when they enlisted, and often limited to jobs as stewards, cooks, or musicians.īlack crew members on the USS Miami sewing and relaxing on the forecastle, starboard side, circa 1864–65.
Furthermore, the nature of naval life meant that segregation was not possible on naval vessels. Throughout the war, African American average 16% of the navy’s personnel and received the same pay as white sailors. Prior to the war, the United States Navy capped the percentage of African American sailors to 5% of its enlisted ranks, but to meet its manpower needs it recruited more Black sailors starting in 1861. naval vessels.Īfrican Americans regularly served in the United States Navy and the merchant marine before the Civil War, perhaps accounting for one-fifth of the nation’s sailors in the early nineteenth century. At the height of the conflict, African American soldiers made up 10% of the Union Army and 23% of all enlisted men on U.S. Additional men from the commonwealth served with the United States Navy. Of the approximately 180,000 African American men who served in the United States Colored Troops during the American Civil War, 8,612 came from Pennsylvania-the largest contingent from any Northern state. “Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship.” -Frederick Douglass Collection of the National Archives, public domain. United States Colored Troops, Port Hudson, LA, c.
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