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 camp, Baton Rouge, circa 1863, buildings formerly used as a Female Seminary image ascribed to McPherson & Oliver (LSU Libraries item 13940009r) A version of the "Fort Monroe Doctrine" cartoon that was drawn on an envelope, reprinted in History of the 19th Century in Caricature (1904)Ĭontraband 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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