Contraband Camps

[Battalion]

"I can not close this message without again adverting to the savage ferocity which still marks the conduct of the enemy in the prosecution of the war....
...Nor has less unrelenting warfare been waged by these pretended friends of human rights and liberties against the unfortunate negroes. Wherever the enemy have been able to gain access they have forced into the ranks of their army every able-bodied man that they could seize, and have either left the aged, the women, and the children to perish by starvation or have gathered them into camps where they have been wasted by a frightful mortality. Without clothing or shelter, often without food...are being rapidly exterminated wherever brought in contact with the invaders....There is little hazard in predicting that, in all localities where the enemy have gained a temporary foothold, the negroes...will have been reduced by mortality during the war to not more than one-half their previous number.

Information on this subject is derived not only from our own observation and from the reports of the negroes who succeeded in escaping from the enemy, but full confirmation is afforded by statements published in the Northern journals by humane persons engaged in making appeals to the charitable for aid in preventing the ravages of disease, exposure, and starvation among the negro women and children who are crowded into encampments."

-Jefferson Davis, 8 December 1863, Journal of the Confederate Congress, Vol. 6, p.512

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Benton Barracks (Camp for Contrabands & organizing USCT), St. Louis, Missouri

"Besides the fact that men are thus pressed into service, thousands have been employed for weeks and months, who have never received any thing but promises to pay. This negligence and failure to comply with obligations, have greatly disheartened the poor slave, who comes forth at the call of the President, and supposes himself a free man, and that, by leaving his rebel master, he is inflicting a blow on the enemy, ceasing to labor and to provide food for him and for the armies of the rebellion. Thus he was promised freedom, but how is it with him ? He is seized in the street, and ordered to go and help unload a steamboat, for which he will be paid, or to sent to work in the trenches, or to labor for some quartermaster, or to chop wood for the Government. He labors for months, and at last is only paid with promises, unless perchance it may be with kicks, cuffs, and curses."

"The poor negroes are everywhere greatly depressed at their condition. They all testify that if they were only paid their little wages as they earn them, so they could purchase clothing, and were furnished with the provisions promised, they could stand it; but to work and get poorly paid, poorly fed, and not doctored when sick, is more than they can endure. Among the thousands whom I questioned, none showed the least unwillingness to work. If they could only be paid fair wages, they would be contented and happy. They do not realize that they are taken and hired out to men who treat them, so far as providing for them is concerned, far worse than their "secesh" masters did. Besides this they feel that their pay or hire is lower now than it was when the "secesh" used to hire them. This is true."

-James E. Yeatman, Western Sanitary Commission


"Over 100 men died at [Benton] Barracks before the regiment took the field, the men having been enlisted by the Provost-Marshals throughout the State and forwarded to this Post during an inclement season,-- thinly clad, and many of them hatless, shoeless, and without food. Many suffered amputation of frozen feet or hands, and the diseases engendered by this exposure resulted in a terrible and unprecedented mortality."

-Lt. Col. William F. Fox, U.S.V.
http://www.missouricivilwarmuseum.org/coloredtroops.htm

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"Since I last wrote to you, the condition of the poor refugees has improved. During the winter months, the small pox carried them off by hundreds; but now it has somewhat abated. At present, we have one hundred and forty patients in the hospital. The misery I have witnessed must be seen to be believed. The Quakers of Philadelphia, who sent me here, have done nobly for my people. They have indeed proved themselves a Society of Friends. Had it not been for their timely relief, many more must have died. They have sent thousands and tens of thousands of dollars to different sections of the country, wherever these poor sufferers came within our lines. But, notwithstanding all that has been done, very many have died from destitution. It is impossible to reach them all. Government has erected here barracks for the accommodations of five hundred. We have fifteen hundred on the list."

-Harriet A. Jacobs, The Liberator, 10 April 1863
http://docsouth.unc.edu/jacobs/support7.html

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"Despite efforts to care for the contrabands, many were crowded into unhealthy camps, where they died from disease, exposure, or, occasionally, starvation. An official in one camp reported a 25% mortality rate over a 2-year period."
http://www.civilwarhome.com/contrabands.htm

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"...At Cairo, Ill., I first came in contact with what were then called contrabands-over 1,500 men, women, and children huddled together in insufficient quarters, the helpless drawing rations from the Government, and the able-bodied men employed in the various departments of the Government as laborers to the extent they were required. Compensation, $10 per month and one ration per day. I found the mortality of the place had been very great, especially among the children-measles, diarrhea, and pneumonia being the prevailing diseases-and this subsequently I found to be the case at all other points visited by me where large numbers were collected....

...I found the treatment of the blacks varied very materially at the different military stations and by the operating columns. Some commanders received them gladly, others indifferently, whilst in very many cases they were refused admission within our lines and driven off by the pickets. They were thus obliged in numerous cases to return into slavery...."

-Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General, U.S. Army
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-b...IF&pagenum=118

[olerebel]

Good points. I believe that the Black race was used by the Northern politicians as a scapegoat. I find it commendable that so many people believed in giving them their freedom. But giving them 'freedom' didn't provide the basic neccessities of life. During the war and in it's aftermath, were they any better off than they were in slavery? My research has suggested that they didn't see much progress, as a whole, until about 1870. In some areas, maybe earlier, other areas even later. I wish that slavery could have been abolished without the suffering to both the Black and Southern races, not to mention the empty chairs at Northern tables.

[matthew mckeon]

"were they(blacks)any better off than they were in slavery?"

Short Answer: yes

Reasons for problems: not Northern politicians(there's a scapegoat for you), but the ex Confederates that African Americans lived among. These Southerners were ready to assault, burn, cheat and kill to prevent blacks from exercising the routine rights and privileges of citizenship.

[larry_cockerham]

I greatly recommend the book Slaves in the Family, recently written by Edward Ball, a descendant of several rice plantation families west of Charleston, South Carolina. Since many of the slaves from those plantations were also his cousins, he goes into great detail with the changing of the world as freedom came their way. Better off in the large sense, but lots of pain and suffering through the reconstruction period. There were no winners in this war, were it not for freedom of the former slaves.

[ole]

Monumentous change does not come smoothly or painlessly ... much less during wartime. That the Yanks were no better humans than the rebels is not surprising. The question remains whether the ultimate good was worth the suffering along the way. Ole

[gary]

Good question Ole. If emancipation could be achieved without the bloodshed of the war, absolutely. The ACW remains the most tragic incident in our nation's history.

[olerebel]

Matt
For the record, My Great Great grandmother gave her slave family 400 acres of land after the war because they had stood by her, and didn't leave her, even when Sherman's troops came through and told them that they were free. That is not my opinion, it's documented fact. Until this day, there has always been close friendship between their family amd mine. I realize that my case is more the exception than the rule, but I live it, it's not an opinion that I found on the internet.

[Wild_Rose]

olerebel, there are numerous accounts of slaves that never left their owners after the war. They were free, but their lives didn't change because they had no reason to change it. They preferred to remain on the land they were either born on or had lived on most of their lives...it was home.

Regards,
Rose

[johan_steele]

Of coarse it is very easy to pick and choose only the negative stories... it's more convenient as well when one is only wanting to see one conclusion.

[Battalion]

"...At Cairo, Ill., I first came in contact with what were then called contrabands-over 1,500 men, women, and children huddled together in insufficient quarters, the helpless drawing rations from the Government, and the able-bodied men employed in the various departments of the Government as laborers to the extent they were required. Compensation, $10 per month and one ration per day. I found the mortality of the place had been very great, especially among the children-measles, diarrhea, and pneumonia being the prevailing diseases-and this subsequently I found to be the case at all other points visited by me where large numbers were collected....

-Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General, U.S. Army (in charge of organizing USCT in the South)
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-b...IF&pagenum=118