Contrabands

[18thVirginia]

Thanks for pointing those out, Alan. Great photographs of great sculptures.

 

[18thVirginia]

Another modern monument for the Contrabands and Freedmen's Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia

Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial
1001 S. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314
www.alexandriava.gov/FreedmenMemorial

 

[matthew mckeon]

Thanks for bumping this thread up. Great images, which I mostly missed first time around.

 

[18thVirginia]

Another "recovered" photo:

Grand Contraband Camp, Hampton, VA
http://www.underthefreedomtree.com/gallery/grand-contraband-camp.html

 

[18thVirginia]

Expired Image Removed
Contraband Camp, Baton Rouge - formerly used as female seminary
Some of Jefferson Davis's slaves were reputed to be among this group.

Some of the online images now seem to be owned by Getty, so it can be difficult to find this photo online. The original can be seen at an LSU website: http://lsu.ldl.lib.lsu.edu/islandora/object/lsu-gsc:39

And here is one from Wikipedia:

Contraband Camp, Baton Rouge - formerly used as female seminary
http://cdm16313.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/LSU_GSC/id/48

 

[18thVirginia]

Caption: The Camp of the Contrabands on the Banks of the Mississippi, Fort Pickering, Memphis, Tenn. --From a sketch by our Special Artist, Mr. Henri Lovie.

http://www.civilwarshades.org/wp-content/uploads/shades_aas_0001.jpg

 

[18thVirginia]

From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

Caption:
Morning Mustering of the 'Contraband' at Fortress Monroe, on Their Way to Their Day's Work, Under the Pay and Direction of the U.S.--From a Sketch by Our Special Artist at Fortress Monroe

http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Freedmen/Intros/contrabands.html

 

[18thVirginia]

"Contrabands" in Arkansas

 

[18thVirginia]

This was shown earlier in post #39, but it was a tiny version, so here is a better one:

Officers and African American enlisted men of the 2nd Rhode Island Camp at Camp Brightwood. LoC.

This is from an NPS website on Living Contraband - Former Slaves in the National Capital during the Civil War.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/living...the-nation-s-capital-during-the-civil-war.htm

An interesting quote that explains that the District of Columbia became an actual border that could be crossed to freedom.

By 1863, approximately 10,000 former slaves had come to Washington, primarily from Maryland and Virginia. The capital was not only a symbol of Union and freedom, but also an actual border which could be crossed to freedom.​

"...the contraband were important to the construction and maintenance of the defense of Washington. Without the contrabands' numbers and labor, the defenses would not have been as successful as they were."Civil engineer Edward Frost​

 

[18thVirginia]

Envelope printed in New York

https://jubiloemancipationcentury.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/butler-and-slave-contraband.jpg?w=869

 

[18thVirginia]

The effects of the proclamaition – freed Negroes coming into our lines at Newbern, North Carolina.' Harper's Weekly, Feb. 21, 1863. LoC.

Horace James, was appointed as the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, in charge of contraband camps at New Bern, Plymouth, Roanoke Island, Beaufort, and Washington. By January 1864, with 17,419 formerly enslaved individuals were living within Union lines.

http://usslave.blogspot.com/2012/07/civil-war-contraband-camps-of-north.html

 

[ForeverFree]

@ForeverFree , love the first three photos in particular. I work at the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center and we administer the Corinth Contraband Camp site. Earlier this year we had the camp accepted into the Network to Freedom
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm

You are surely familiar with this, but this is the Helena-West Helena Freedom Park site.

- Alan