Learn from historian JOHN QUARSTEIN about Fort Monroe as “Freedom’s Fortress” which became a place of hope for thousands of enslaved people during the Civil War. In May 1861, three enslaved men, Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Shepard Mallory, escaped across the James River to Union-occupied Fort Monroe, challenging the legal status of fugitive slaves a day after Virginia seceded at the beginning of the Civil War. General Benjamin Butler refused to return them to their owner, designating them as "contraband of war", enemy property used to aid the Confederacy. This innovative landmark legal position sparked a mass of self-emancipating individuals. This presentation explores how the contraband policy shifted the war's purpose toward emancipation and led to numerous communities around Union forts and camps.

John V. Quarstein, award-winning Author, Historian, Educator, Preservationist, Speaker, and Director Emeritus of the USS Monitor Center at The Mariners' Museum and Park, in Newport News. John has received numerous awards for teaching, historic preservation, museum development and writing. His deep interest in all things related to the Civil War stems from his youth living on Fort Monroe, walking where heroes once stood.