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    Jane Davis, PHD Candidate, Middle Tennessee State University

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    Jane Davis
    African Americans fled to Union lines during the Civil War seeking protection and freedom. They established contraband camps throughout the South managed by the Army and private organizations. Some camps provided land for farming to become self-sufficient. Camps near military bases employed refugees. After the war, refugees gained freedom through military service, education, and landownership.

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    Jane Davis, PHD Candidate, Middle Tennessee State University

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    Jane Davis
    62 views12 pages
    African Americans fled to Union lines during the Civil War seeking protection and freedom. They established contraband camps throughout the South managed by the Army and private organizations. Some camps provided land for farming to become self-sufficient. Camps near military bases employed refugees. After the war, refugees gained freedom through military service, education, and landownership.

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    Contrabands

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    African Americans fled to Union lines during the Civil War seeking protection and freedom. They established contraband camps throughout the South managed by the Army and private organizations. Some camps provided land for farming to become self-sufficient. Camps near military bases employed refugees. After the war, refugees gained freedom through military service, education, and landownership.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    62 views12 pages

    Jane Davis, PHD Candidate, Middle Tennessee State University

    Uploaded by

    Jane Davis
    African Americans fled to Union lines during the Civil War seeking protection and freedom. They established contraband camps throughout the South managed by the Army and private organizations. Some camps provided land for farming to become self-sufficient. Camps near military bases employed refugees. After the war, refugees gained freedom through military service, education, and landownership.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 12

    Jane Davis, PhD candidate, Middle Tennessee State University

    Taking Freedom into their own hands


    As early as 1861, African Americans

    began to flee to Union lines seeking protection and freedom.


    General Benjamin Butler coined

    the term Contraband for these refugees in May 1861


    African Americans throughout the

    South went in pursuit of Union camps. In many cases, they provided information about Confederate

    troops in exchange for shelter, food, and aid.

    Locations of Camps

    Contraband camps were established throughout the South and Border States and were managed by a combination of the Army, the U. S. Treasury Department and various private aid organizations. Some of the largest concentrations of contraband camps were established along the Mississippi River, closely following Grants troop movements.

    Davis Bend, LA Government Farm

    type camps provided African Americans with leases to confiscated lands, equipment and resources necessary to be self-sufficient.

    Arlington, VA and Murfreesboro, TN Based near Union encampments, military camps employed ablebodied men and women by the U. S. Army to build fortifications, bury casualties, prepare food and wash clothes.

    Arlington was a well developed African American community into the 20th Century, as was Cemetery Community near Murfreesboro, TN. Both declined after War Department purchases large bundles of land to create National Cemetery and Battlefield Parks.

    Contraband Camps In St. Louis: Missouri Hotel And Benton Barracks


    Camps in St. Louis and

    other border cities were established to act as a way station to points north for fugitive slaves arriving from the South and West.
    Newly freed slaves were

    absorbed into existing

    African American community rather than creating a new one.

    Challenges to Freedom:
    Uncertain Legal Status
    Prior to Emancipation

    Proclamation in 1863, contrabands were not technically free but were

    confiscated property.
    After Emancipation, fugitive

    slaves could be free, or remain slaves based on the loyalty of masters and location.

    Challenges to Freedom: Unequal Pay


    African American

    enlisted men and officers were paid $7 per month. White

    enlisted men were paid $13 per month.


    Many of laborers

    on camp farms imaginary wages.

    Paths to Citizenship Military Service

    Men like Private Hubbard Pryor and Spotswood Rice joined the Union Army to serve their country, earn their freedom and seek a better life.

    Spotswood Rice
    Wrote daughters

    owner demanding their freedom.


    Served in the

    67th United States

    Colored Infantry
    Lived in St. Louis

    with his wife, sons and daughters after the war

    Paths to Citizenship
    Education
    Education was seen

    as important as free labor in the process of helping slaves transition into free men and women
    Eaton reported

    schools were flocked to by camp residents of all ages.

    Paths to Citizenship
    Landownership
    In the years following

    the war, African American landownership increased greatly in areas surrounding the former camps.
    Hampton, Va., Davis

    Bend, La. and Murfreesboro, Tn. all saw a dramatic rise in African American landownership in the years following the war.

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