Post #1675073
2026-02-24 20:46 UTC
@oberstenzian Participation was not capitulation. It was a demand written in uniform and backed by force. Black Americans understood military service as political action…evidence of their right to belong in the republic on equal terms.
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@Deglassco@mastodon.social 2026-02-24 20:47
@oberstenzian In other words, it was a fight not to save the Union as it had been, but to remake it. Not to preserve a constitutional order that had sanctioned slavery, but to force that order to confront its contradiction. Black enlistment was leverage. It was a demand for recognition.