Offering their knowledge of the area and their readiness to work for wages, these men and women convinced Gen. Benjamin Butler to hire them. A lifelong Democrat who cared little about slavery, Butler was so convinced of the fugitives’ usefulness that he invoked abolitionist legal ideas by calling them “enemy contraband” who could be lawfully confiscated by the Union Army. By the end of the session in August, Congress codified a process for Butler-like actions by army officers to assume jurisdiction over any enslaved people who liberated themselves by sneaking into Union lines.
