[Ads-l] Antedating of "Contraband" (Term for Fugitive Enslaved Person)

[Shapiro, Fred]

contraband (OED, 4., 1862)

1861 New York Sun 1 June 2/3 (Newspapers.com)  The Two Legged Contrabands.  Fugitive slaves continue to flock into the camps.

1861 Steuben Republican (Angola, Indiana) 29 June 1/3 (Newspapers.com)  As our skiff drew up to the bank on the Virginia side, we noticed two large ebony "contrabands" hiding behind a wall.

NOTE:  Early in the Civil War, Union General Benjamin Butler was faced with a Confederate demand that fugitive slaves be returned to bondage as required by then-existing law.  Such returns were crucial to the Southern war effort, as they desperately needed the labor of enslaved persons to defeat the much larger Northern forces.  Butler decreed that fugitive slaves be regarded as "contraband of war" and demands for their return should be rejected.  Fugitives quickly were given the slang appellation "contrabands."

Fred Shapiro

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