Photo of the Day

It is May 23, 1861.

Three enslaved men belonging to Confederate Col. Charles Mallory

of Hampton, Virginia, have escaped and arrived at Fortress Monroe,

a federal installation in the Hampton harbor.

Fort Sumter is now operated by the National Park Service.

The Civil War is now six weeks old,

having begun with the South Carolina militia’s firing

on federal Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12.

Enslaved family dressed in their best clothes for the photographer.

Fortress Monroe’s commanding officer, Major General Benjamin Butler,

meets with these men and learns they were to be used

to construct Confederate fortifications.

Then, a day later, a Confederate major carrying a flag of truce approaches.

He demands the return of the men,

claiming Butler is obligated to do so

under the federal Fugitive Slave Act.

Cartoon depicting Butler's refusal to return the escapees.

But Butler, a skilled former criminal defense attorney, refused.

‘With Virginia’s secession from the Union,’ Butler said, ‘the state is no longer a part of the US.’

‘And the Fugitive Slave Act doesn’t apply to foreign countries.’

Butler told the Confederate officer the enslaved men

were ‘contraband of war.’

[Meaning enemy property susceptible for use in military conflict.]

Under international law, contraband of war can be taken from the enemy.

And that is what Butler did, giving the enslaved men shelter at the Fort

and paying them wages for doing work there.

Escapees head toward Union lines.

Word of Butler’s decree spread quickly.

Within days, dozens of enslaved people made their way to Fort Monroe.

And this began to happen at Union camps everywhere.

Eventually, about 500,000 enslaved people will seek freedom

by escaping to Union-held territory.

It was a stunning turn of events.

Escapees in Union camp.

At the time of Butler’s decree, Lincoln had gone on record

as stating he believed he lacked the authority to abolish slavery.

And his Emancipation Proclamation was a year-and-a-half in the future.

But the floodgates had opened.

Arlington, Virginia, contraband camp.

The federal government established a hundred ‘contraband camps’

for these people.

Soon, teachers from the North came to teach reading and writing

in camp schools.

Freedmen set off for work for the Union army.

Freed men living in the camps earned wages

working for the Union army.

US Colored Troops.

Thousands of young men enlisted in the United States Colored Troops

to fight with the Union against the Confederacy.

Cartoon depicting enslaved men running to Fort Monroe.

The first step on a very long road to racial equality had been taken.

Not by the President.

Not by Congress.

Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818 - 1893).

But by a man who had seized the moment.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda