How did life change for enslaved people as the American Civil War raged around them? In Black-led churches, congregations staked their claims to citizenship. Some enslavers relocated Black people to keep them from seeking refuge with the Union army. Some Black people were forced into military work, and many signed up to fight for Union forces. The American Civil War finally set them free, but Black American soon found that liberty, for them at least, was full of both promise and peril.