# Civil War/slave question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 12, 2024, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781 "2024-06-12T12:49:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/1 "2024-06-12T12:49:52Z")
During the Civil War, if a slave approached the Union army and asked for protection, what would happen? Would the Union forces welcome runaway slaves? Would they turn them away? Would it depend on circumstances? I suspect so. Those circumstances would include whether it was 1861 or 1865, whether the Union commander had the facilities, or the inclination personally, to protect the slaves from re-capture. But was it pretty well a crapshoot for a slave to seek out protection? What response could I expect, as a slave in the south during the war, seeing an approaching Union Army division or regiment, if I could run from the plantation and put myself at their disposal? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/2 "2024-06-12T12:53:47Z")
Look into the term “contraband,” used to refer to fugitives from slavery who made it to Union lines. For example: [https://ahec.armywarcollege.edu/exhibits/CivilWarImagery/cheney\_contraband.cfm](https://ahec.armywarcollege.edu/exhibits/CivilWarImagery/cheney_contraband.cfm) Short version: of course it depended on circumstances, but they were unlikely to be returned to slavery. By August 1861, there was an official policy that those fugitives whose labor had helped the Confederacy were freed. [https://www.nps.gov/articles/living-contraband-former-slaves-in-the-nation-s-capital-during-the-civil-war.htm](https://www.nps.gov/articles/living-contraband-former-slaves-in-the-nation-s-capital-during-the-civil-war.htm) ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/3 "2024-06-12T13:14:01Z")
IIRC when Sherman marched across Georgia, one of the problems he had was a growing crowd of slaves that followed the liberating army rather than stay as slaves. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/4 "2024-06-12T13:28:55Z")
93,000 former slaves joined the Union Army before the end of the war. Don’t know the details but I believe changes to law were required to allow them to serve. IIRC they weren’t treated equally to ‘White’ Union Soldiers but certainly preferred their treatment to slavery and I’m sure enthusiastically wanting to join the fight against slavery. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/5 "2024-06-12T14:43:22Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > followed the liberating army rather than stay as slaves. As a matter of law, as soon as Union troops retook southern territory, they were no longer slaves, but free. That was the legal effect of the Emancipation Proclamation. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/6 "2024-06-12T20:32:23Z")
I assume Sherman left a path of destruction, not a series of occupation troops, so the territory reverted to Confederate when he was past? I doubt the locals respected the proclamation at the time. The problem Sherman had was feeding all these people following the Union forces. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/7 "2024-06-12T20:45:38Z")
> [@GailForce](#): > > During the Civil War, if a slave approached the Union army and asked for protection, what would happen? Would the Union forces welcome runaway slaves? Yes, they would welcome them. > [@md-2000](#): > > IIRC when Sherman marched across Georgia, one of the problems he had was a growing crowd of slaves that followed the liberating army rather than stay as slaves. Once Sherman got there- they were no longer slaves. > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > As a matter of law, as soon as Union troops retook southern territory, they were no longer slaves, but free. That was the legal effect of the Emancipation Proclamation. You beat me to it! > [@md-2000](#): > > I assume Sherman left a path of destruction, not a series of occupation troops, so the territory reverted to Confederate when he was past? Not so much, and what would the traitors retake it with anyway? I suppose there were some instances but for the most part the traitors ran away from Sherman and his army. From wiki-[Sherman's March to the Sea - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman's_March_to_the_Sea) _The Army’s stay in Savannah was generally without incident. The Army was on its best behavior, in part because anyone caught doing “unsoldier-like deeds” was to be summarily executed.[[28]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman's_March_to_the_Sea#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBarrett195627-28) As the Army recuperated, Sherman quickly tackled a variety of local problems. He organized relief for the flood of refugees that had inundated the city. Sherman further arranged for 50,000 bushels of captured rice to be sold in the North to raise money to feed Savannah._ ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/8 "2024-06-12T20:47:36Z")
I can’t give a cite, but I remember reading that the first slaves that escaped were considered to have been used as weapons against the union army and therefore legal to confiscate. In practice, this meant they were free and many joined the union forces. After the emancipation proclamation (early 1863, IIRC) all slaves in the south were free as far as the union was concerned. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/9 "2024-06-12T21:07:19Z")
Not always a rosy prospect, especially for the emancipated ones who came under the negligent care of unfortunately named Union General Jefferson C. Davis. He allowed them to be abandoned and drowned at the [Ebeneezer Creek Massacre](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Creek), or slaughtered by Joe Wheeler’s cavalry. Davis had already [murdered his superior officer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_C._Davis) and gotten away scot free, and Wheeler would serve as a beloved old coot in the Spanish American War. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/10 "2024-06-13T00:48:53Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > After the emancipation proclamation (early 1863, IIRC) all slaves in the south were free as far as the union was concerned. Not quite. Parts of the south that were under union control at the moment the proclamation was issued were not included, because Lincoln issued it under his war powers. He didn’t have the authority to apply it to areas that were under union control, no longer in rebellion. There were some very specific carve-outs of some Louisiana parishes, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/11 "2024-06-13T00:56:45Z")
Here’s the paragraph setting out the application of the proclamation: > [@](#): > > wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: > > Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, **(except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans)** Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, **(except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)]**, and which **excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.** ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/12 "2024-06-13T01:09:46Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > As a matter of law, as soon as Union troops retook southern territory, they were no longer slaves, but free. That was the legal effect of the Emancipation Proclamation. There’s a subtle point here which many people miss. Slaves could become free even if the American army hadn’t occupied the region where they were enslaved. If a slave in South Carolina, for example, managed to reach anywhere that the United States controlled, they were permanently free. So at the same time the American army was moving southward freeing slaves, there were thousands of slaves moving northward to free themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/13 "2024-06-13T01:16:02Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > 93,000 former slaves joined the Union Army before the end of the war. But if Union soldiers were captured by Confederate troops during battles, the white troops were sent to Confederate prisoner of war camps (where about 1/3 died of misuse, starvation or disease), while black troops were considered as runaway slaves – either returned to their slave masters, or just summarily executed (black men who had been trained to fight and use guns were thought a danger in the slave states). It was this practice that led to the end of prisoner exchanges between the Union & Confederate sides during the later part of the war. The Union Generals, like US Grant, demanded that _ **all** _ captured Union soldiers be treated the same, regardless of skin color. When Confederates refused this, he ended the POW exchanges. (He was able to do this because Union states, with their larger population, could replace captured soldiers easier than the southern states.) ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/14 "2024-06-13T15:46:29Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > forces. After the emancipation proclamation (early 1863, IIRC) all slaves in the south were free as far as the union was concerned. January 1st, 1863. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-slave-question/1002781/15 "2024-06-13T16:44:54Z")
But then, under Confederate law slaves were still slaves. So basically it boiled down to who was in charge in any particular locale. Might makes right, for assorted versions pf “right”. Which would explain why so many ex-slaves chose to follow the Union army as it went by in Georgia.