![]() The status of Southern-owned slaves became an issue early in 1861, not long after hostilities began in the American Civil War. 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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