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Re: Contriband vs Freedmen
In Response To: Re: Contriband vs Freedmen ()

'Simple solution... just note that they were referred to by the Union army as either contriband or freedmen. Problem solved'

I don't think that the question is that easily solved. Historically under the Emancipation Proclamtion anywhere there was a Union Uniform those slaves were not free. They were "Confiscated property". While true they were free from their "former southern masters", they did have a new set of masters in Union suits who sold those 'contribands' to simpathetic planters for cotton, to work the cotton field to raise more cotton to sell back to the Union Army for export overseas. So I don't see how the term "freedmen" could actually be applied except in the loosest of standards.

We have very little direct information about how those ex-slaves lived in those Contriband camps because most blacks of the time were uneducated. But, there seems to be enough evidence to indicate that those in these camps were not Free. Especially to come and go as they pleased. And those camps were not pleasent places to be in.

Question, if the 13th Amendment not been ratified, what would their status have been then? Would they have come under the Southern Claims Commission after the war to be compensated for as lost property under those federal claims laws? After all the E.P. was not law, but only a Presidential execitive order.

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Contriband vs Freedmen
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Re: Contriband vs Freedmen
Re: Contriband vs Freedmen