John Boston - An Escape from Slavery, 1862
Fighting between Northern and Southern armies drove thousands of African Americans to seek refuge behind Union lines.
Early in the Civil War, fighting between Northern and Southern armies drove thousands of African-Americans to seek freedom and refuge behind Union lines. By 1862, their growing numbers forced the Federal government to address the problem of supporting the formerly enslaved and their emancipation status.
As Union troops moved deeper into Virginia, northern commanders had to make their own decisions regarding the status of African-American refugees. Some officers put escaped enslaved people to work for Union troops, while others returned them to plantation owners.
At Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, Union Maj. General Benjamin Butler refused to send enslaved fugitives back into the bonds of slavery. He classified the escaping slaves as contraband of war and ordered that they not be returned. Because of Butler's actions, a federal policy was instituted on August 6, 1861 - fugitive slaves were declared to be "contraband of war" and declared free.
In early January of 1862, fleeing slavery in Maryland, John Boston found refuge with the 14th Brooklyn, a New York regiment encamped at Upton Hill. He wrote a letter to his wife, who remained in Owensville, Maryland. At the moment of celebrating his freedom, his highest hope and aspiration was to be reunited with his family.
“My Dear Wife it is with grate joy I take this time to let you know Whare I am i am now in Safety in the 14th Regiment of Brooklyn . . . this Day i can Adress you thank god as a free man I had a little truble in giting away But as the lord led the Children of Isrel to the land of Canon So he led me to a land Whare fredom Will rain in spite Of earth and hell Dear you must make your Self content i am free from al the Slavers Lash . . . I am With a very nice man and have All that hart Can Wish But My Dear I Cant express my grate desire that i Have to See you i trust the time Will Come When We Shal meet again And if We dont met on earth We Will Meet in heven Whare Jesas ranes . . .”
There is no evidence that Elizabeth Boston ever received this letter. It was intercepted and eventually forwarded to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton by Major General George B. McClellan, providing evidence to the War Department and Lincoln administration of the refugee issue.
On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. This law's passage occurred eight months before he issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The act brought to a conclusion decades of agitation aimed at ending what antislavery advocates called "the national shame" of slavery in the nation's capital. It provided for immediate emancipation, compensation to former owners loyal to the Union of up to $300 for each freed slave, voluntary colonization of former slaves to locations outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 for each person choosing emigration. Almost one year later, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves within the Confederacy were free.
John Boston and thousands of other freed slaves were allowed to encamp in the Washington, D.C., area, including Arlington. These improvised settlements, often built near Union fortifications and camps, were the foundations for later African-American neighborhoods (Freedman's Village).
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