Emancipation And Contrabands

Decent Essays
Although emancipation was never an objective of the Union, “…in the war’s early months the Lincoln administration tried hard to keep the Negro out of the conflict. It started to become a motive of war, after a series of events. May of 1861, Benjamin Butler was sent down by Lincoln to hold Fort Monroe. Contrabands began coming to Butler to try and join the Union side. After Lincolns approval, contrabands are placed to work for the Union side. Major General John C. Frémont ordered martial law throughout the state of Mississippi, confiscating Confederate property and setting their slaves free. Setting the slaves free was a strategic move to hurt the Confederates pride and source of economy. By this point in the war, the North knew that by removing

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