Why did Union General Benjamin Butler declare enslaved African American refugees to be contraband, or captured war supplies?
(1 point)
Responses
He did not want them to fight for the Confederacy.
He did not want them to fight for the Confederacy.
He would not have to return them to slaveholders in the South.
He would not have to return them to slaveholders in the South.
He would not have to find slaveholders willing to take them.
1 answer
Union General Benjamin Butler declared enslaved African American refugees to be contraband, or captured war supplies, primarily because:
He would not have to return them to slaveholders in the South.
This decision was part of Butler's strategy to undermine the Confederate war effort and to provide refuge and support to escaped enslaved people, as it allowed the Union Army to protect them from being returned to their enslavers.
