Question

Why did Union General Benjamin Butler declare enslaved African American refugees to be contraband, or captured war supplies?


He would not have to find slaveholders willing to take them.

He would not have to return them to slaveholders in the South.

He did not want them to fight for the Confederacy.

Answer 1

Union General Benjamin Butler declared enslaved African American refugees to be "contraband" of war primarily to avoid having to return them to their enslavers in the South. By classifying the enslaved people who escaped to Union lines as contraband, Butler effectively argued that they were property that had been captured in the course of the war. This designation allowed him to keep them from being returned to their slaveholders without directly challenging the institution of slavery at that moment.

So, the correct reasoning would be: *He would not have to return them to slaveholders in the South.*