The slaves, the non-combatants, one-third of the whole, were required to work in the field without regard to sex, and almost without regard to age.

Children from the age of eight years could and did handle the hoe; they were not much older when they began to hold the plough.

The four million of colored non-combatants were equal to more than three times their number in the North, age for age and sex for sex, in supplying food from the soil to support armies.

Women did not work in the fields in the North, and children attended school.
The arts of peace were carried on in the North.

Towns and cities grew during the war.