Editing Underground Railroad (section)

===American Civil War routes (1861 to 1865)===

{{See also|Contraband (American Civil War)}}

[[File:Contraband foreground - Copy.jpg|thumb|Enslaved people who escaped to Union lines during the Civil War were called contraband.]]

During the [[American Civil War]], the [[Union Army]] captured Southern towns in [[Beaufort, South Carolina]], [[St. Simons, Georgia|St. Simons Island, Georgia]], and other areas and setup encampments. As a result, enslaved people on nearby plantations escaped from slavery and ran to Union lines for freedom and to sign up to fight in the Union Army. American historian [[Eric Foner]] explains in his book, ''Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad,'' that: "...the Civil War fundamentally transformed the opportunities available for slaves seeking freedom. As soon as federal troops which in Maryland meant the very beginning of the war, slaves sought refuge with the Union..."{{sfn|Foner|2015}} [[Susie King Taylor]] was born enslaved in Liberty County, Georgia and escaped from slavery with her family to Union lines in [[St. Catherines Island|St. Catherine's Island]], Georgia with the help of her uncle who put her on a federal gunboat plying the waters near [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]]-held [[Fort Pulaski National Monument|Fort Pulaski]]. In addition, thousands of enslaved Black Americans escaped slavery and fled to Union lines in the South Carolina [[Sea Islands]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Susie King Taylor |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/susie-king-taylor.htm |website=Fort Pulaski National Monument, Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park |publisher= National Park Service |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Susie King Taylor An African American Nurse and Teacher in the Civil War |url=https://www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=5be2377c246c4b5483e32ddd51d32dc0&bookmark=Narrative%20of%20War |website=Library of Congress |access-date=11 September 2024}}</ref> In 1861, Jarvis Harvey escaped from slavery and sailed to Union lines at [[Fort Monroe|Fortress Monroe, Virginia]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Hahn |first1=Steven |title=The Largest, Most Successful Slave Revolt in History? What historians get wrong about the actions of enslaved people during the Civil War. |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/10/why-historians-are-reluctant-to-call-the-american-civil-war-a-slave-rebellion.html |website=The Slate |date=October 13, 2015 |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref> Robert Sutton was born enslaved in Alberti Plantation along Florida's northeastern boundary with Georgia, and during the Civil War he escaped from slavery by making a canoe and sailed out to Port Royal, South Carolina where Black Americans were freed from slavey after the [[Battle of Port Royal]] and signed up to fight in the [[1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Colored)|1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Robert Suttion |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/robert-sutton.htm |website=Reconstruction Era National Historical Park |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref> [[Prince Rivers]] escaped from slavery and found freedom in Union lines in [[Port Royal, South Carolina]] after his enslaver fled Beaufort upon arrival of the Union Navy and Army. Rivers later signed up to fight in the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Poole |first1=Scott |title=Rivers, Prince |url=https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/rivers-prince/ |website=South Carolina Encyclopedia |publisher=University of South Carolina, Institute for Southern Studies |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref> On May 12, 1862, [[Robert Smalls]] and sixteen enslaved people escaped from slavery during the Civil War on a Confederate ship and sailed it out the [[Charleston Harbor]] to a Union blockade in South Carolina.<ref>{{cite web |title=Robert Smalls |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/robert-smalls.htm |website=Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Contraband Camp, formerly used as a Female Seminary.jpg|thumb|Contraband camps were formed during the Civil War and provided refuge and protection to newly freed people in Union occupied territories of the South.]]

Underground Railroad agents shifted their efforts and escape plans around Union encampments because large numbers of [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|freedom seekers]] escaped to Union occupied territories and not the North for their freedom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Viola |last2=Wolny |first2=Philip |title=A Primary Source Investigation of the Underground Railroad |date=2015 |publisher=Rosen Publishing |isbn=9781499435177 |page=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CIphDwAAQBAJ}}</ref> For example, the [[Kansas Territory|Kansas territory]] became a state in 1861, and slavery was prohibited in the state of Kansas. During the Civil War, abolitionists, [[Free-Stater (Kansas)|free staters]], and [[Jayhawker]]s helped to emancipate freedom seekers who escaped slavery from Missouri (a slave state that bordered Kansas) and brought them back to Kansas as [[Contraband (American Civil War)|contraband]] of war.<ref>{{cite web |title=First to Serve-1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/1stkansas.htm |website=Fort Scott National Historic Site |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref> An article from the National Park Service explains how the Civil War shifted the escape routes and final destinations of freedom seekers: "But, no sooner had Union troops appeared in the border states, on the islands off the Atlantic coast, and in the lower Mississippi Valley, than thousands of blacks took the opportunity to liberate themselves by absconding to the Yankee (Union) camps. A first effort to send them back to their masters was soon abandoned. The runaways became '[[Contraband (American Civil War)|contraband]],' or confiscated property of war. Many of them quickly found work within the Union lines and members of their families began to join them."<ref name="auto5"/>

[[File:Contrabands at headquarters of General Lafayette LCCN2014646902.jpg|thumb|Contrabands at headquarters of General Lafayette in Yorktown, Virginia]]

The word contraband was given to enslaved runaways by Union General [[Benjamin Butler]]. In 1861, three enslaved men in Norfolk, Virginia, Shepard Mallory, Frank Baker, and James Townsend, escaped from slavery and fled to Union lines at [[Fort Monroe]]. Butler refused to act on the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 that required the return of escaped slaves to their enslavers. Instead, Butler kept the three men because they were "property" of the Confederate States and not the United States where the Fugitive Slave Act was passed and enforced. An article from the National Trust for Historical Preservation explains: "...Butler realized the absurdity of honoring the Fugitive Slave Law, which dictated that he return the three runaways to their owner. They had been helping to construct a Confederate battery that threatened his fort. Why send them back and bolster that effort? So the general struck upon a politically expedient solution: Because Virginia had seceded from the Union, he argued, he no longer had a constitutional obligation to return the runaways. Rather, in keeping with military law governing war between nations, he would seize the three runaways as contraband—property to be used by the enemy against the Union."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wills |first1=Eric |title=The Forgotten: The Contraband of America and the Road to Freedom |url=https://savingplaces.org/stories/the-forgotten-the-contraband-of-america-and-the-road-to-freedom |website=National Trust for Historic Preservation |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Confederate Slave Contraband, and the American Civil War, a story |url=https://aaregistry.org/story/confederate-contraband-and-the-american-civil-war-a-story/ |website=African American Registry |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Corinth Contraband Camp (2c163208-1dd8-b71c-079b-9015087c01e4).jpg|thumb|A plaque to remember Corinth Contraband Camp]]

As the Civil War continued, areas of the South and border states became refugee camps for freedom seekers. [[Washington, D.C.|Washington D.C.]] was a large refugee area during the war. On April 16, 1862, Congress passed the [[District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act|Compensated Emancipation Act]] that abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. After the passage of this act, freedom seekers from Virginia and Maryland escaped and found freedom in the District of Columbia, and by 1863, there were 10,000 refugees (former runaway slaves) in the city and their numbers doubled the Black population in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kiger |first1=Patrick |title=The Civil War Created a Refugee Crisis in Washington |url=https://boundarystones.weta.org/2016/01/14/civil-war-created-refugee-crisis-washington |website=Boundary Stones WETA's Local History Website |date=January 14, 2016 |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Fling |first1=Sarah |title=Washington, D.C.'s 'Contraband' Camps |url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/washington-d-c-s-contraband-camps |website=The White House Historical Association |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref> During the war, enslaved people living near Beaufort County, South Carolina escaped from slavery and fled to Union lines in Beaufort because African Americans in the county were freed from slavery after the [[Battle of Port Royal]] on November 7, 1861 when the plantation owners fled the area after the arrival of the Union Navy and Army. As a result, a refugee camp was started to provide safety and protection to freedom seekers. In the beginning there were sixty to seventy runaways, but as time progressed the numbers of refugees grew to 320. The Union Army did not have enough food rations and clothes to take care of them. Free men, women, and children in Beaufort's refugee camp were paid to work for the Union as cooks, laundress, servants, and carpenters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fields-Black |first1=Edda |title=Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War |date=2024 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780197552797 |pages=193–195 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tb3sEAAAQBAJ&q=refugee%20camps}}</ref> Union forces occupied [[Corinth, Mississippi]] and slaves from nearby plantations escaped to Union lines. To accommodate the freedom seekers, general [[Grenville M. Dodge]] established the Corinth Contraband Camp with homes, schools, hospitals, churches, and paid employment for African Americans. It was estimated that Corinth Contraband Camp provided a new life for 6,000 former slaves.<ref>{{cite web |title=Corinth Contraband Camp |url=https://www.nps.gov/shil/planyourvisit/contrabandcamp.htm |website=Shiloh National Military Park |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Corinth Contraband Camp |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/corinth-contraband-camp-poi.htm |website=The National Park Service |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref>

====Union Navy and Emancipation====

[[File:Company of colored troops. (3110840538).jpg|thumb|Free Blacks and former slaves who escaped slavery signed up to fight in the Union Army and Navy.]]

The Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War was [[Gideon Welles]] and in September of 1861 Welles declared that enslaved and free African Americans could enlist at the lowest rating of "Boy" in the Union Navy. Union vessels located in Southern ports received numbers of runaways who fled slavery by way of small boats to vessels docked in Union controlled territories. Benjamin Gould recorded in his journal that by September 22, 1862, eight freedom seekers had arrived at the [[USS Cambridge (1860)|USS ''Cambridge'']] and that 20 more runaways arrived two weeks later. One of the escaped freedom seekers listed was William Gould, who later joined the Union (U.S.) Navy and fought against the Confederacy from 1862 to 1865. The Union vessel [[USS Hartford (1858)|USS Harftford]] helped to liberate enslaved people while going up the [[Mississippi River]]. [[Bartholomew Diggins]], who served aboard the vessel, recalled the events of liberating the enslaved. He said: "we picked [up] many negroes [sic] slaves who would come out to the ships in small boats at every place we anchored." Other Union vessels that helped to liberate the enslaved were the USS Essex and USS Iroquois. A few Union soldiers and sailors returned escaped slaves back to their enslavers.<ref>{{cite web |title=African Americans in the U.S. Navy During the Civil War |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/civil-war-archive1/african-americans-in-the-u-s--navy-during-the-civil-war.html#:~:text=The%20Navy%20drew%20upon%20these,of%20the%20Navy%27s%20enlisted%20manpower. |website=Naval History and Heritage Command |access-date=19 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Stanford professor finds inspiration, fortitude from the diaries of his great-grandfather, who escaped slavery |url=https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2021/06/finding-fortitude-diaries-escaped-slave |website=Stanford Report |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref> By the end of the war, 179,000 formerly enslaved and free Black Americans had fought in the Union Army, and 21,000 had fought in the Union Navy.<ref>{{cite web |title=Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military During the Civil War |url=https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war#:~:text=By%20the%20end%20of%20the,19%2C000%20served%20in%20the%20Navy. |website=National Archives and Records Administration | date=August 15, 2016 |access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref>  

From the [[American Revolutionary War]], through the [[War of 1812]], and then the American Civil War, the Underground Railroad contributed to hundreds and sometimes thousands of escapes by African Americans.{{sfn|Hudson|2015|pp=2, 9–10}}

====Legal and political====
When frictions between North and South culminated in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], many Black people, both enslaved and free, fought for the [[Union Army]].<ref>Mark Lardas, ''African American Soldier in the Civil War: USCT, 1862–66''</ref> Following Union victory in the Civil War, on December 6, 1865, the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] to the Constitution outlawed slavery except as punishment for a crime.<ref>Ann Heinrichs, ''The Underground Railroad''</ref> Following its passage, in some cases the Underground Railroad operated in the opposite direction, as people who had escaped to Canada returned to the United States.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Underground Railroad and Sylvania's Historic Lathrop House| last1=Gindy| first1=Gaye E.| page=20| url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4979770-the-underground-railroad-and-sylvania-s-historic-lathrop-house| date=2008| publisher=AuthorHouse| isbn=9781434367617| access-date=July 25, 2015| archive-date=March 5, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305004015/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4979770-the-underground-railroad-and-sylvania-s-historic-lathrop-house| url-status=live}}</ref>

====Criticism====
[[Frederick Douglass]] was a writer and orator who had escaped slavery. He wrote critically of the attention drawn to the ostensibly secret Underground Railroad in his first autobiography, ''[[Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave]]'' (1845):

{{Blockquote|I have never approved of the very public manner in which some of our western friends have conducted what they call the ''Underground Railroad'', but which I think, by their open declarations, has been made most emphatically the ''upperground railroad.''}}

He went on to say that, although he honored the movement, he felt that the efforts at publicity served more to enlighten the slave-owners than the slaves, making them more watchful and making it more difficult for future slaves to escape.<ref>Douglass, Frederick. (1845) ''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass''. Dover Publications. Chapter 11.</ref>