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Description:
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Battle between Union and Confederate soldiers. The first line of the Union regiment is made up of Freedmen armed with agricultural instruments. The image is a reference to General Benjamin Butler's "contraband" policy, by which escaping slaves reaching Union lines would not be returned to slavery. Butler, a trained attorney, used Virginia's secession to argue that under international law that escaped slaves were "contraband of war" and he was not required to return them to their former owners. |
