They were owned and had a master, and by this, there was segregation. Whites saw them as a value rather than a human being who deserved the same rights as others.
The Black community used the Civil War as a way to end slavery because in 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the Confederate states. This applied to neither the slaveholding border states that were loyal to the union, nor to the rebel states. This struggle between the north and south turned to war to end slavery. African Americans across the nation were free because slavery was declared illegal. Being free due to age and amount of labor worked came as a privilege and did not have to be