Today in Hampton History 1861 - Confederate troops systematically

Today in Hampton History
1861 - Confederate troops systematically



 burn the entire town of Hampton. Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder issued the order after reading a letter from U.S. Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, printed in the New York Tribune, outlining plans for self-emancipated “Contrabands”* to settle there. 

Butler’s dispatch also argued that Freedom Seekers escaping slavery should be treated as free men, women, and children entitled to the “free enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Magruder, enraged at Butler’s plan to “colonize them [the Contrabands] at Hampton, the home of most of their owners,” ordered local troops under Capt. Jefferson Curle Phillips to lead the burning.  

Inhabitants of the entire Hampton Roads area were astounded at the glow and flames, visible for miles. The next day, Butler called the Burning of Hampton a “wanton and unnecessary act” for which he could not “discern the strategical importance.”

Contrary to Magruder’s malicious intent, a thriving community of Contrabands rose from Hampton’s ruins. They lived as free people through the Civil War. 

(*Note: “Contrabands” were Freedom Seekers protected as “contraband of war,” a legal loophole devised by U.S. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler preventing them from being returned to slavery. By the end of the Civil War, thousands of Freedom Seekers claimed their right to escape from slavery under the U.S. Army’s “contraband” policy, and their actions eventually helped lead to the Emancipation Proclamation.)

Image: “Burning of the Village of Hampton, Va., by the Rebel Forces under General Magruder, Midnight, Wednesday, August 7th.” From the front cover of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 17 August 1861.

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