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[Contraband, Fortress Monroe]. Book illustration from Library of Congress
Summary
Print shows a slave at the Union fort taunting his plantation master. The planter (left) waves his whip and cries, "Come back you black rascal." The slave replies, "Can't come back nohow massa Dis chile's contraban." Other slaves are seen leaving the fields and heading toward the fort. On May 27, 1861, Benjamin Butler, commander of the Union army in Virginia and North Carolina, decreed that slaves who fled to Union lines were legitimate "contraband of war," and were not subject to return to their Confederate owners. The declaration precipitated scores of escapes to Union lines around Fortress Monroe, Butler's headquarters in Virginia.
Devised title from Gladstone collection checklist.
Gladstone's inventory code and notes: Envelopes. No. 5.
"XAMINO" is inscribed in pencil on the back of the envelope.
Purchase; William A. Gladstone; 1995; (DLC/PP-1995:113.175)
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