Forum Other To be Politically Correct or not?

I am working on a historical novel right now, that takes place right before, during, and following the American Civil War.  I would like to get the opinion of others, especially that of those who may have also been faced with this situation.  Is it alright to be politically incorrect in my writing or is this something that could negatively affect my ability to get my work published in the future?  I am trying to stay as accurate as possible to the attitudes and actions of those living in that time period and I don't feel like having a white male in 1860 (whether in favor of abolition or slavery), refer to a black slave as an African American.  I am not a fan of the alternative myself (I just don't like the sound of it) and I would never want to offend my read in any way or have the language reflect badly on me as a writer of course, but I feel in order to maintain the historical integrity of my novel I need to include racial slang in my dialogue.  How do you suggest I handle this? 

You are, in fact allowed.  What your characters do does NOT affect you or yourself as an entire writer. Many slave novelists use the language.  In a modern setting it is unacceptable, but if the novel itself is set in the time, with people acting as they would, it is allowed to convey the personalities, attitudes and norms of the period. I look up Victorian slang when writing Victorian, it's al a relative topic :)

Read through some of Samuel Clemens Stories, such as Puddi"n Head Wilson and   Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, etc. that should enrich your vocabulary of the time frame of the deep south from the era of the civil war to the years of reconstruction, the context and use of  american slang of the times were used in most of his stories about 'life on the Mississippi river', By reading some of his early work about being a cub pilot on a steamboat, will give you a peek at the real life situations and common day to day use of the English language of the nineteenth century.  

Look up information on the direction Quentin Jerome Tarantino for advice on this subject. Specifically the criticism of his work defined as "racism".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintin_Terantino

Frankly, if you're nervous about the use of racism, then it means you potentially will have racist qualities within your work. If you have a headstrong idea about racism and know how to use it in context, then it would be appropriate to use.
Being politically correct changes with the tide of time, which will mean your work will be stuck within the current era it's written in. If your piece is a period piece, then it should adjust to the standards of the generation of that era your work takes place in.

I believe for the sake of realism, it might add a dimension of gravity and reality to include such qualities. Although I perfectly understand your hesitance in employing such debasing terms, I believe it won't affect your reception as an author (as was stated before) since you are aiming to depict a certain type of atmosphere. I think it would be fair to include some kind of prior warning or note about the sensitive nature of the novel so that readers can have some sort of sense of what your story implicates.