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‘Within a few days’, noted Lincoln’s biographers John Nicolay and John Hay (at the time his secretaries), ‘a new phrase was on every one’s lips, and the newspapers were full of editorials chuckling over the happy conception of treating fugitive slaves of rebel masters as contraband of war.’ I shall hold these negroes as contraband of war, since they are … claimed as your property.’Īfter being reported in the press, the exchange became a popular topic of conversation. The soldier, Major John Baytop Cary, told Butler that the three runaways belonged to his commander.Īs they debated the legal issue involved, Butler declared: ‘But you say you have seceded, so you cannot consistently claim them. Butler was no abolitionist, but he realised that he could hardly order his troops – many of whom were antislavery New Englanders – to detain, shackle and return three runaways to secessionists who were aiming guns at them from batteries across the river.Īs Butler considered the dilemma, a soldier of the 115th Virginia Militia approached the fort, beneath a white flag of truce.
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That was the dilemma confronting Fort Monroe’s commander, Major General Benjamin F. Granting asylum to the three runaways would contravene this guarantee. Should these refugees be treated as freemen who had emancipated themselves? Or did the Constitution and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which remained the law, require that they be returned to their so-called owners? Complicating matters was the fact that enslavers in loyal border states such as Maryland and Kentucky had been assured that the right to keep their human property was secure. What seemed like a straightforward request was anything but. There they asked Federal troops manning the fort to grant them asylum.
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The day after Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, three enslaved men – Frank Baker, James Townsend and Shepard Mallory – commandeered a boat and rowed across the James River from Hampton to Fortress Monroe.