Contraband ( American Civil War ) Contraband was a term commonly used in the United States military during the American Civil War to describe a new status for certain escaped slaves or those who affiliated with Union forces . The Army ( and the United States Congress ) determined that the US would not return escaped slaves who went to Union lines and classified them as contraband . They used many as laborers to support Union efforts and soon began to pay them wages . The former slaves set up camps near Union forces , and the Army helped support and educate both adults and children among the refugees . Thousands of men from these camps enlisted in the United States Colored Troops when recruitment started in 1863 . At war ' s end , more than 100 contraband camps existed in the South , including the Freedmen ' s Colony of Roanoke Island , where 3500 former slaves worked to develop a self - sufficient community . History . The status of southern - owned slaves after Confederate states had engaged in the American Civil War became an issue early in 1861 , not long after hostilities began . At Fort Monroe in Virginia ' s Hampton Roads , Major General Benjamin Butler , commander , learned that three slaves had made their way across Hampton Roads harbor from Confederate - occupied Norfolk County , and presented themselves at Union - held Fort Monroe . General Butler refused to return the escaped slaves to slaveholders who supported the Confederacy . This amounted to classifying them as " contraband , " although the first use of that terminology in military records appears to have been by another officer . ( see below ) . The three slaves , Frank Baker , James Townsend and Sheppard Mallory , had been leased by their masters to the Confederate Army to help construct defense batteries at Sewell ' s Point , across the mouth of Hampton Roads from the Union - held Fort Monroe . They escaped at night and rowed a skiff to Old Point Comfort , where they sought asylum at Fort Monroe . Prior to the War , the owners of the slaves would have been legally entitled to request their return ( as property ) and likely would have done so under the federal 1850 Fugitive Slave Act . But , Virginia had declared ( by secession ) that it no longer was part of the United States . General Butler , who was educated as an attorney , took the position that , if Virginia considered itself a foreign power to the U . S . , then he was under no obligation to return the three men ; he would hold them as " contraband of war . " When Confederate Major John B . Cary requested their return , Butler refused the request . Because the practice effectively recognized the seceded states as foreign entities , President Abraham Lincoln disapproved of it . Gen . Butler did not pay the escaped slaves wages for work that they began to undertake , and he continued to refer to them as slaves . On September 25 , 1861 , the Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles issued a directive to give " persons of color , commonly known as contrabands " , in the employment of the Union Navy pay at the rate of $ 10 per month and a full day ' s ration . Three weeks later , the Union Army followed suit , paying male " contrabands " at Fort Monroe $ 8 a month and females $ 4 , and specific to that command . In August , the US Congress passed the Confiscation Act of 1861 , which declared that any property used by the Confederate military , including slaves , could be confiscated by Union forces . The next March , its Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves forbade returning slaves to Confederate masters or the military . Grand Contraband Camp . The word spread quickly among southeastern Virginia ' s slave communities . While becoming a " contraband " did not mean full freedom , many slaves considered it a step in that direction . The day after Butler ' s decision , many more escaped slaves found their way to Fort Monroe and appealed to become contraband . As the number of former slaves grew too large to be housed inside the Fort , the contrabands erected housing outside the crowded base from the burned ruins of the City of Hampton . They called their new settlement Grand Contraband Camp ( which they nicknamed " Slabtown " ) . By the end of the war in April 1865 , less than four years later , an estimated 10 , 000 escaped slaves had applied to gain " contraband " status , with many living nearby . Across the South , Union forces managed more than 100 contraband camps , although not all were as large . From a camp on Roanoke Island that started in 1862 , Horace James developed the Freedmen ' s Colony of Roanoke Island ( 1863 – 1867 ) . Appointed by the Union Army , James was a Congregational chaplain who , with the freedmen , tried to create a self - sustaining colony at the island . Near Fort Monroe , but outside its protective walls , the pioneering teacher Mary S . Peake began to teach both adult and child contrabands to read and write . She was the first black teacher hired by the American Missionary Association , which also sent numerous Northern white teachers to the South to teach . This area of Elizabeth City County later became part of the campus of Hampton University , a historically black college . Defying a Virginia law against educating slaves , Peake and other teachers held classes outdoors under a certain large oak tree . In 1863 , President Abraham Lincoln ' s Emancipation Proclamation was read to the contrabands and free blacks there , for which the tree was named the Emancipation Oak . For most of the contrabands , full emancipation did not take place until the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery was ratified in late 1865 . In modern times , the Contraband Historical Society was organized by the descendants of the contrabands , to honor and perpetuate their story . Authors such as Phyllis Haislip have written fiction inspired by the history of the contraband slaves . Contraband term first used by William Budd . General Butler ' s written statements and communications with the War Department requesting guidance on the issue of fugitive slaves did not use the term " contraband . " As late as August 9 , 1861 , he used the term " slaves " for fugitives who had come to Fort Monroe . On August 10 , 1861 , Acting Master William Budd of the gunboat USS " Resolute " first used the term in an official US military record . As early as 1812 , the term , " contraband " was used in general language to refer to illegally smuggled goods ( including slaves ) . Development . Contraband camps developed around many Union - held forts and encampments . In 1863 , after the Emancipation Proclamation and authorization of black military units , thousands of former slaves and free blacks began to enlist in the United States Colored Troops . The Army allowed their families to take refuge at contraband camps . The black troops ultimately comprised nearly 10 percent of all the troops in the Union Army . By the end of the war , more than 100 contraband camps had been developed in the South . Many were assisted by missionary teachers recruited from the North by the American Missionary Association and other groups who , together with free blacks and freedmen , agreed that education of the former slaves was of the highest priority . The teachers often wrote about the desire of former slaves , both adults and children , for education .