How can I make my thesis more controversial?

Question

Many black men fought during the Civil War, mostly for the Union, although there were some who fought for the Southern Confederate states. These black soldiers fought primarily because they were forced to and also because they chose to.

Answer 1

Really your thesis is good enough altough I don't agree totally with it.

I would research however the way the soldiers were treated by both sides. Read about the crater, which was a plan by the Union army to break the Confederate lines, how were the soldiers used, read about the way they were treated as compared to white soldiers of the day.

In most respects you would think the army who claimed they were trying to free men would treat them better, but they were treated pretty poorly.

Maybe if you could prve which side had better treatment, the conclusion would be enough to push your paper to the next level.

Answer 2

Make it Controversial: If you were to have slang or derogatory terms in there about Confederates or black people. You could make a reference to how the Confederates should have won, or a statement glorifying Confederates....

If this were my thesis:
There were many black ("African American" might be considered more politically correct) soldiers who fought for the Union and the Confederacy because they volunteered or were forced.

Some of your thesis that might need revising if you don't take mine:
Saying "southern confederate" states is redundant and can be revised to just Confederate, like the way you have "Union" and not Northern Union. When you say controversial, do you mean insulting or more to debate about? By saying "mostly for the Union", it also becomes redundant when you immediately say right after "although there were some.....". You could rephrase that by saying ",mostly for the Union, but some for the Confederate states.

Answer 3

Thats a great topic for a thesis. You might want to discuss the mistreatment that the black people escaped via abolition only to be forced to fight on the front lines. They went from a bad situation to a worse one. So, was the loss of all the black men who fought in the civil war done in vain? I think not. I believe they had to fight in order to further promote the ideal of slave freedoms throughout the whole country. Although, technically, the Civil War was not fought because of this reason, we as Americans nowadays know that politically slavery was on the forefront of controversial issues.

Answer 4

What was the "reward" for a black man fighting for the confederacy? For the Union? Research that - and find out if it was worth it to the black man...if so, why? Did they understand what they fought for? How about checking out the education level of the black man during the Civil War and how that worked against them.... Watch the movie "Glory" with Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman... it will give you an idea of what was going on during that period.

Answer 5

I think that many of the black men that fought for the confederacy during the War Between the States did not know that they had any choice in the matter, or their choice might be to be shot or hanged.

Answer 6

how about why these black men shouldn't have fought at all?