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"Running to Freedom: Fighting for Freedom"
At the outbreak of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln said his goal was to preserve the Union and not to abolish slavery. But four million enslaved African Americans knew otherwise. For them, the war was their path to emancipation. When Federal armies moved into the South, thousands of slaves fled to Union camps seeking freedom. At first, no consistent federal policy regarding fugitive slaves existed, allowing individual commanders to make their own decision. Some officers put runaways to work for the army as cooks, laborers, and spies; other simply turned them away or returned them to their masters. Finally, on August 6, 1861, the United States Congress declared fugitive slaves to be "contraband of war," officially preventing freedom seeking refugees from being returned to bondage.
Less than two years later, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, not only changing the purpose of the war, but opening the door for blacks to join the Union Army. African American men rushed to enlist despite facing segregation and discrimination. By the time the war ended in 1865, almost 200,000 black men had served in the United States Army and Navy. Roughly 90,000 were "contraband of war." Perhaps more than anyone else, these men understood the value of freedom. |