At some points this became a positive embarrassment to Union
commanders. A few days after General Butler took command of the
Union troops at Fortress Monroe in May, 1861, the agent of a
rebel master came to insist on the return of three slaves,
demanding them under the fugitive-slave law. Butler replied that
since their master claimed Virginia to be a foreign country and
no longer a part of the United States, he could not at the same
time claim that the fugitive slave law was in force, and that his
slaves would not be given up unless he returned and took the oath
of allegiance to the United States. In reporting this, a
newspaper pointed out that as the breastworks and batteries which
had risen so rapidly for Confederate defense were built by slave
labor, negroes were undoubtedly "contraband of war," like powder
and shot, and other military supplies, and should no more be
given back to the rebels than so many cannon or guns. The idea
was so pertinent, and the justice of it so plain that the name
"contraband" sprang at once into use. But while this happy
explanation had more convincing effect on popular thought than a
volume of discussion, it did not solve the whole question. By the
end of July General Butler had on his hands 900 "contrabands,"
men, women and children of all ages, and he wrote to inquire what
was their real condition.
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