Grand Contraband Camp - The Camp Is Created

The Camp Is Created

The word spread quickly among southeastern Virginia's slave communities. While becoming a "contraband" did not mean full freedom, many slaves found it preferable to staying where they were. The day after Butler's decision, many more escaped slaves found their way to Fort Monroe and appealed for "contraband" status. The area attracted those slaves who could escape, which included determined families and women with children.

As the number of former slaves grew too large to be housed inside the Fort, they began to build housing from the ruins of Hampton left by the Confederates. They called their new settlement the Grand Contraband Camp (which they nicknamed "Slabtown"). By the end of the war in April 1865, less than 4 years later, an estimated 10,000 slaves had applied to gain "contraband" status, and many lived nearby. The contraband slaves of the Virginia Peninsula are credited with establishing the United States' first self-contained African-American community, where they quickly created schools, churches, businesses, and other social organizations.

Other contraband camps sprang up in many areas during the Civil War, often near Union bases. One notable location was at Roanoke Island on North Carolina's Outer Banks. This was the former site of the "Lost Colony" of 1587, almost 300 years earlier.