Tag Archives: contrabands

Lone Freedom Fighter

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It wasn’t until I was reviewing a document featured in my “Chaos of Emancipation” post at the National Archives blog, “Rediscovering Black History” that I rediscovered the story of a lone freedom fighter in northeast Louisiana early in 1863. In more »

Contrabands: a new life of freedom or a return to slavery?

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In 1861, at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, Union general Benjamin Butler refused to return three runaway slaves to their owners, even though Federal law required him to do so under the Fugitive Slave Act. Butler had a different take. Southern law more »