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the Confederacy would be declared “contraband of war,” and given their freedom. As Union armies moved into the rebellious southern states, tens of thousands of slaves fled from their plantations and sought their protection. Army commanders sometimes enlisted the slaves to work for the Union forces. Other times, they were placed in camps, where starvation and disease led to a high death rate. Abolitionists in the North organized efforts to provide food and medicine for these camps, and organized schools to teach the escaped slaves how to read and write. After a Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. According to this order, if the rebellion did not end by January

Runaway slaves cross the Rappahannock River in Virginia, seeking protection from Union troops, July 1862. The government policy was to treat escaped slaves as captured enemy property, or “contrabands.”

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A Broken Nation