Contraband In The Civil War Essay

enemy’s lines; visiting his principal camps and most important posts, and bringing us back important and reliable information.”
Officers and soldiers began to accept Contrabands and viewing them with a better disposition. (Image below: Soldier helping slave woman with shackles) August Hill, he was an officer within the Union infantry stated, "A great many [white people]," he wrote, "have the idea that the entire Negro race are vastly their inferiors. A few weeks of calm unprejudiced life here would disabuse them, I think. I have a more elevated opinion of their abilities than I ever had before. I know that many of them are vastly the superiors of those...who would condemn them to a life of brutal degradation."
Contraband who fled into Union territory became essential for the Union, but also led to the Confederacy losing a lot of able-bodied men. Due to the close proximity of the Union military, it not only became an opportunity for able-bodied men to escape, but also an opportunity for women, children and the elderly to seek asylum. Jaime Martinez, contributor to Slavery during the Civil War, suggest that within a U.S. census issued in the 1860, it is estimated that the overall loss between the mid-1860’s up to 1865, that nearly …show more content…
It was during that same year that the First Confiscation Act of 1861 was presented as a solution. The act permitted the seizure of any property that was used to aid or support the South (Confederates) war efforts. This included war supplies, substances and of course slaves. The act states, “That whenever hereafter, during the present insurrection against the Government of the United States, any person claimed to be held to labor or service under the law of any State, shall be required or permitted by the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to be due, or by the lawful agent of such person, to take up arms against the United

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