Civil War and Reconstruction
Why was the name contraband used?
The escaped slaves were known as contraband s. The federal government had a hard time deciding what to do about slaves who had escaped. Some officers returned them to their owners, while others let them stay near the troops and used them as laborers. Finally, on August 6, 1861, fugitive slaves were declared to be " contraband of war" if their labor had been used to aid the Confederacy in any way. And if found to be contraband , they were declared free. Many freed slaves stayed in the contraband camps because they didn’t have any money to go elsewhere.
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