The purpose of the Civil War was not originally to free slaves, but slaves became an important part of the war. African American slaves overcame many challenges to finally gain their freedom. Many African Americans endured the chance to fight for the union and this increased the union's workforce immensely. Life for slaves was difficult. Each year they normally received two cotton shirts, a jacket, two pairs of trousers, a pair of socks, a pair of shoes, a coat and a wool hat. To eat, slaves of the time were primarily given eight pounds of pork or fish and herring salted with cornmeal each month. Slaves were housed in wooden barracks with dirt floors, but were sometimes made of nailed boards with cracks and filled with rags. The beds were made up of pieces of straw and/or grass and old rags. They were only given a blanket to sleep on and cover themselves with. A room could hold up to a dozen people including men, women and children. Even as a child it was very difficult to live the life of a slave. When a slave was about a year old, the mother and other family members could be sold. When a slave was only four years old, he could sometimes work as a babysitter. When a young slave was about five years old, he had to run errands and carry water to slaves working in the fields. At the age of eight, children would be forced to work on the plantation. Plantation owners often split families to buy and sell slaves. Over 32% of marriages were destroyed by the sale of slaves by masters. A slave husband could be taken away from his wife and another family. Even children could be taken from their mothers. Slave owners took misbehavior of any kind very seriously. They wanted to keep all slaves in line and, as a result, the… center of the paper… the rise of the sectional controversy (part 2).”African American Odyssey: Abolition, Anti-Slavery Movements, and the Rise of the Sectional Controversy sectional (Part 2). n.d. Web 25 January 2014.Harriet Beecher Stowe.Copyprint.Published by Johnson, Fry & Co., 1872, after Alonzo Chappel.Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-10476 (3-18)Frederick Douglass."A Lecture on John Brown."Typescript, 1860.Frederick Douglass Papers, Manuscripts Division (3-8a)Adolph von Steinwehr .Map showing the distribution of slaves in the Southern States, [np, nd].Printed map.Geography and map division (3-14)Mission to Fugitive Slaves in Canada: Being a Branch of the Operations of the Colonial Church and School Society.[London]: Offices of the Society, 1859.Pamphlet.Rare Book and Special Collections Division (3-4a)