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Description:
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General Benjamin Butler is protecting a runaway slave from his former owner at swordpoint in front of Fort Monroe. The slave owner, from one of the first families of Virginia, is depicted as a scarecrow. He is holding a dog by the collar with one hand, and a cat-o'-nine-tails with the other. The phrase "D. Murphy's Son, Print. 65 Fulton & 372 Pearl Street, N.Y. appears to the left of the image. 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. |
