Contraband, Runaways, Freemen: New Definitions of Reconstruction Created by the Civil war.
By International Social Science Review
- Release Date: 2001-09-22
- Genre: Social Science
Description
Introduction There exists in the history of the Civil War, a gap in the story of African American participation in the struggle. Much discussed is the Underground Railroad, the use of black troops in both armies, John Brown's Raid, and the Freedman's Bureau. Left largely unexplored is the use of runaway slaves and contraband in the Union Army during the opening days and months of the struggle. Between the time the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter in April 1861 and the authorizing of Black Troops by the Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in January 1863, the Union Army grappled with the conflicts raised by the South's "peculiar institution."
