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Q: Why did union general Benjamin butler declare enslaved blacks refugees to be contraband or captured war suppiles?
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Why did general Benjamin Butler declare enslaved African American refugees to be contraband or captured war supplies?

Declaring slaves who had run away into the position of the Union Army to be "contraband" allowed the Union Army to "confiscate" them. This meant that the Union Army did not have to turn the runaways over to their owners, when the owners appeared wanting their slaves back. This denied the labor of the slaves to the south, and also satisfied the feelings of many in the Union Army, who did not like the idea of forcing slaves who had escaped back into servitude. So, for some months runaways were called "contrabands". This was before the Emancipation Proclamation, which did not take effect until January 1, 1863, by which time the war had been going on for more than nineteen months. Union leaders had to steer clear of the mention of "emancipation", of freeing the slaves, for the first part of the war. Very early on the Union commander in Missouri, John C. Fremont, had issued his own "emancipation" without consulting President Lincoln first, or even warning anyone in Washington DC what he intended to do. Fremont was a "political general", one of a large number of men (like Ben Butler) who were appointed as generals in the army in the early days not because they were great soldiers, but because of their political clout and connections, so Fremont should have known better. (Fremont did at least have some military experience, unlike almost all the other political generals - he had become famous as "The Pathfinder" following publication of his book written about his explorations of the west as the commander of a military expedition before the war). Fremont had been the first Republican to run for President, but he lost in 1856. Lincoln was the first Republican elected. Lincoln forced Fremont to withdraw his proclamation of "emancipation" in those early days in Missouri. The reason for this was Lincoln was trying to woo the border states - states which had slavery, but had not seceded - yet, anyway - and joined the Confederacy. Lincoln had said he hoped to have God on his side, but he HAD to have Kentucky. So all talk of "emancipation" had to be stifled at first, to avoid alarming the politically powerful large slave-holders in the border states (Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware) and to not give them the issue of slavery over which to decide they must cast their lot with the south, or be bankrupted.


What are the effects of a nation divided by civil war?

The effects of a nation divided by civil war include a poor economy, poverty, crime and death of the citizens which occurs during the war. Civil war leads some of the citizens into being refugees.


Why was the Freedman's Bureau created?

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands wascreated by Congress in March 1865 to assist for one year in the transition from slavery to freedom in the South


Which rights spurred people to settle in America?

The right of religious freedom was the major reason for the migration of the Puritans to the New World. They were seeking a complete break from any remaining influence of Roman Catholicism. In an interesting turn-about, many of those religious refugees piously and actively denied religious freedom to others, especially the Quakers who were severely persecuted. Puritanism did not prevail and many other religious groups were active by the early 1700s.


Why was sectional compromise impossible in 1860?

Sectional compromise did not work in 1860 for many reasons. One of them being that this was the time during the great potato famine in Ireland, so the refugees cascaded into the northern states in the 1850's. Therefore, the north had no room. Once the Europeans were in America, they had no desire for the practice of slavery, and the north states were not convinced to compromise over slavery. The new compromise was put out for grabs, but Lincoln rejected it because he would not allow the extension of slavery. Also, the Crittenden Compromise would allow new slave states, but Lincoln would not accept this, either.

Related questions

Why did union general Benjamin butler declare enslaved African-American refugees to be contraband or captured war supplies?

He would not have to return them to slave holders in the south


Why did Union General Benjamin Butler declare enslaved African American refugees to be contraband or captured war supplies?

It was an excuse for not returning the slaves to their owners, and thereby weakening the Southern economy.


Why did union general butler declare enslaved African American American refugees to be contraband or captured war supplies?

It was an excuse for not returning the slaves to their owners, and thereby weakening the Southern economy.


Why did union Benjamin butler declare enslaved African American refugees to be contraband or capture war supplies?

The law allowed for enemy property to be confiscated. Since the South considered slaves chattels (personal property), Butler took advantage of the loophole to free the slaves in Southern territory under Union control.


What is the poem 'We Refugees' by Benjamin zephaniah about?

a poem on refugees


Use the word refugee in a sentence?

the refugees were coming in fast to the camp after their release from the stockage where they had been captured.


What has the author Benjamin Mulamba Mbuyi written?

Benjamin Mulamba Mbuyi has written: 'Refugees and International Law/Les Refugies Et Le Droit International'


What were Southern runaway Black slaves who found shelter behind the Union Lines called and when was this term first used?

In the first year of the Civil War large numbers of escaping slaves found refuge in Fort Monroe in Hampton Virginia, a miltary installation which never fell into Confederate hands. The commander of that fort, General Benjamin Butler of the Massachusetts volunteers named these refugees "Contrabands" as they were contraband, that is captured property of war. It is a demeaning term as it recognized the slaves as property rather than as people. Nonetheless the term caught on and was widely used in the Union Army, The Northern Press, and by Union politicians during the entire course of the war.


How many country did China rule?

TIBET, china captured it in 1950 had still controls it and claims it be its own integral part.millions of refugees and there descendants still live in india.


When was The Refugees created?

The Refugees was created in 1893.


What part of speech is refugees?

Refugees is a noun


How many pages does The Refugees have?

"The Refugees" by Viet Thanh Nguyen has 224 pages.