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Early in the war,
questions arose concerning the legal status and the practical
treatment of slaves who escaped across Union military lines.
The Confederacy insisted that the Union abide by the Fugitive
Slave Act of 1850 and return the slaves to their masters. On
May 24, 1861, General Benjamin Butler, the Union commander at
Fort Monroe in southeast Virginia, refused to comply with the
Fugitive Slave Act. He labeled runaway slaves, whom the
Confederacy considered to be property, “contraband of war”
(i.e., seized property) if their masters refused to pledge
loyalty to the Union.
An editorial in the June 8,
1861 issue of Harper’s Weekly supported Butler’s
contraband policy, and argued that the Civil War would destroy
the institution of slavery, one way or another, even though the
goal of the North was limited to restoration of the Union. The
editorial pointed out that during the 1860 presidential
campaign, Butler was the gubernatorial nominee in Massachusetts
of the Southern wing of the Democratic Party and supported its
candidate for president, Vice President John Breckinridge. The
results of Butler’s contraband policy were illustrated in the
August 17, 1861 issue of Harper’s Weekly showing an
exodus of slaves from Hampton, Virginia, to
nearby Fort Monroe, with accompanying
text provided by the
New York Herald.
On August 6, 1861, Congress enacted the
First Confiscation Act, which prohibited Union military officers
from returning runaway or captured slaves who had been used in
the Confederate war effort to their masters. On July 17, 1862,
the Second Confiscation act emancipated all slaves coming under
Union military jurisdiction who were owned by rebel masters.
Many of the contrabands became paid laborers for the Union
military. The cover of the August 2, 1862 issue
of Harper’s Weekly depicted contrabands digging a trench
for Union forces around Vicksburg, a strategic Confederate
stronghold on the Mississippi River, which finally surrendered
to the Union on July 4, 1863. In the March 7, 1863 issue,
Alfred Waud illustrated black teamsters
receiving their pay. Waud estimated that 800-1000 black men
worked as teamsters for the Union military. He observed that
black teamsters earned $20 a month (about $30,000 a year in 2003
dollars), double what they earned before the Emancipation
Proclamation, but five dollars less than the white teamsters. |
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1) June
8, 1861, p. 354, c. 2
editorial, “Contraband of War”
2)
August 17, 1861, p. 524 and
p. 527, c. 3-4
illustration and text, “The Stampede
from Hampton”
3)
August 2, 1862, p. 481
illustration, contrabands “Cutting the Canal Opposite
Vicksburg”
4) March 7, 1863, p. 148
illustration,
contraband teamsters being paid
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Introduction - John Adler, HarpWeek Publisher...
Slavery and the Secession Crisis
