Building on the promises

This dissertation examines how Black Iowans and Kansans fought for the right to serve as soldiers during the Civil War and used their military service to claim equal citizenship rights during the Civil War era. In doing so, they helped reconstruct the meaning of citizenship in their states and throughout the nation and defined the meaning of freedom for themselves and their communities. Midwestern states like Iowa and Kansas were at the forefront of the debate over the issue of the westward expansion of slavery and debates concerning Black emigration and citizenship rights. As such, to better understand the national debate over these issues, it is necessary to understand how such debates played out in these border states. As free territories and then states bordering the slave state of Missouri, White Iowans and Kansans feared the emigration of both enslaved and free Black people and passed Black laws that denied Black men and women basic citizenship rights such as voting, militia service, judicial rights, and even exclusionary laws meant to prevent the emigration of Black people. Black people and their White allies pushed back against these discriminatory laws through petitions and colored conventions claiming their rights as citizens by citing the previous military service of Black men during wars like the Revolutionary War as evidence of their earned birthright citizenship. During the Civil War, Black Kansans and Iowans petitioned for the right to serve as soldiers to prove once again their worthiness as citizens. The First Kansas Colored Infantry was the first Black regiment to see combat during the Civil War and helped pave the way for the organization of other Black regiments throughout the nation by refuting through their brave actions prevalent nineteenth century American racist stereotypes used to deny Black men the right to serve in the military and from exercising citizenship rights. After winning the right to raise Black regiments, Black activists worked to recruit Black men in several states, including Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Minnesota, and also Indian Territory. Military service profoundly affected Black Iowa and Kansas soldiers, their families, and Black communities. Black soldiers learned various skills from their service like reading and writing, discipline, and how to advocate for their rights and that of their communities. In addition, soldiers were also instrumental in building community infrastructure such as schools, churches, and orphanages necessary for the social and economic uplift of Black communities after the war. Black soldiers also developed lasting bonds with comrades during their service that they maintained after the war and utilized as they moved to the same Midwestern communities and founded and joined the same churches, fraternal orders, and other social institutions. During and after the war, Black soldiers, their families, and community activists used the political capital of Black military service to argue for the repeal of Black Laws, education rights, and suffrage rights in Iowa and Kansas. Black soldiers created new lives for themselves and their families in Midwestern communities with these newly won rights. This dissertation builds upon the work of historians such as Donald R. Schaffer and his more general examination of the postwar lives of Black veterans and the effects of military service on their transition to civilian life by providing a more focused regional approach through the examination of Iowa and Kansas. It further builds upon the work of historians such as Elliott West and Leslie Schwalm and the expanding “Greater Reconstruction” historiography that calls for the study of Reconstruction’s effects on all regions of the nation, especially the West. This study does so by utilizing military pension records and other primary source materials from the National Archives as well as various newspapers and archival records from Iowa and Kansas archives to reconstruct the lived experience of Black soldiers, their families, and their communities and better understand the social and political effects of emancipation and Reconstruction in Midwestern states like Iowa and Kansas. By examining petitions, state and national colored convention minutes, and newspaper editorials utilized by Black soldiers and activists, this study shows Black military service's vital part in the rhetorical battle to secure the recognition of Black citizenship rights in the Midwest. This research breaks new ground by emphasizing the crucial role Black soldiers, their families, and communities played in the Midwest's radical transformation during the Civil War and Reconstruction era as well as their contributions to the advancement of Black suffrage rights nationally. In particular, Black veterans in Iowa were at the forefront of the effort to secure Black suffrage rights in the state. They helped to make Iowa the first Northern state after the Civil War to recognize the suffrage rights of Black men. Both Iowa and Kansas veterans were leaders in national organizations like the Colored Conventions movement and the Colored Soldier’s and Sailor’s League and personally petitioned members of Congress and the President of the United States to pass legislation guaranteeing Black veterans equal bounties and pensions and to pass the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. In addition, this study calls for further analysis of the postwar lives of other Black veterans and their communities and the effects of military service in their efforts to secure equal rights and shape the meaning of freedom in other parts of the nation.