2/27/2023 0 Comments Whats contraband![]() While becoming a "contraband" did not mean full freedom, many people living under slavery considered it a step in that direction. The word of this policy spread quickly among enslaved communities in southeastern Virginia. Main article: Grand Contraband Camp, Virginia The next March, its Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves forbade returning enslaved persons to Confederate enslavers, whether private citizens or the Confederate military. In August, the US Congress passed the Confiscation Act of 1861, which declared that any property used by the Confederate military, including enslaved people, could be confiscated by Union forces. Three weeks later, the Union Army followed suit, paying male "contrabands" at Fort Monroe $8 a month and females $4, specific to that command. On September 25, 1861, the Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles issued a directive to give "persons of color, commonly known as contrabands", in the employment of the Union Navy pay at the rate of $10 per month and a full day's ration. Butler did not pay these men wages for work that they began to undertake, and he continued to refer to them as "slaves." On August 10, 1861, Acting Master William Budd of the gunboat USS Resolute first used the term in an official US military record. ![]() General Butler's written statements and communications with the War Department requesting guidance on the issue of fugitive slaves did not use the term "contraband." As late as August 9, 1861, he used the term "slaves" for fugitives who had come to Fort Monroe. However its use was given a new context during the American Civil War after Butler's decision. As a result, President Abraham Lincoln disapproved of it, not wanting to grant such recognition to those states.Īs early as 1812, the term "contraband" was used in general language to refer to illegally smuggled goods (including enslaved people). General Butler, who was educated as an attorney, took the position that, if Virginia considered itself a foreign power to the U.S., then he was under no obligation to return the three men he would hold them as "contraband of war." When Butler refused the request, it effectively recognized the seceded states as foreign entities. But, Virginia had declared (by secession) that it no longer was part of the United States. Prior to the War, the owners of the slaves would have been legally entitled to request their return (as property) under the federal 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. The Commander of Fort Monroe, Major General Benjamin Butler, refused to return Baker, Malloy, and Townsend, to the confederate officer who asked to re-enslave them. Prior to their escape, these three men had been forced to help construct an artillery battery at Sewell's Point, aimed at Fort Monroe. On May 24, 1861, three men, Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory and James Townsend, escaped enslavement by crossing Hampton Roads harbor at night from the Confederate-occupied Norfolk County, Virginia, and seeking refuge in Fort Monroe. Fort Monroe, in Hampton Roads, Virginia, was a major Union stronghold which never fell to the Confederate States of America, despite its close proximity to their capital city, Richmond. The status of Southern-owned slaves became an issue early in 1861, not long after hostilities began in the American Civil War. 3 Development of other Contraband Camps.In Roanoke Island, approximately 3,500 formerly enslaved people worked to develop a self-sufficient community. īy the end of the war, more than one hundred "contraband camps" were operating in the Southern United States, including the Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Grant with some of his family and staff in 1863, discussed was how 300 of the runaway slaves were fit for military Union service. One particular Contraband Camp that had 6,000 "runaway negroes" was in Natchez, Mississippi, and was visited by USA General Ulysses S. ![]() Thousands of men from these camps enlisted in the United States Colored Troops when recruitment started in 1863. The army helped to support and educate both adults and children among the refugees. These self-emancipated Freedmen set up camps near Union forces, often with army assistance and supervision. ![]() They used many as laborers to support Union efforts and soon began to pay wages. In August 1861, the Union Army and the US Congress determined that the US would no longer return people who escaped slavery who went to Union lines, but they would be classified as "contraband of war," or captured enemy property. Contraband was a term commonly used in the US military during the American Civil War to describe a new status for certain people who escaped slavery or those who affiliated with Union forces. ![]()
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