A Civil War Camp for the Courageous

A new park in Helena, Arkansas is the latest effort to document the nation’s complete Civil War history. It’s called Freedom Park and is dedicated to the thousands of slaves who cast their fortune with the Union soldiers who traveled the South in the last few years of the war.

“From community to community, from plantation to plantation, the slaves wanted freedom, and there was hope in these Union soldiers,” said Thomas Jacques, assistant director of the Delta Cultural Center.

Jacques and the center’s director, Katie Herrington, hired a research firm to learn more about “the contraband” of war as the slaves were considered. According to the researchers, there were about 2,000 slaves attached to the Union army as it moved into eastern Arkansas.

Harrington said, “They were coming from all over the state. It was like a wagon train, and people started joining it.”

Jacques added, “It’s not like you had to get to Canada anymore. No, freedom was in Helena if you could get there.”

Major General Samuel Curtis led the Union troops and supported an end to slavery. There were no formal orders permitting slaves to enlist in the Union Army, but General Curtis was an abolitionist who supported an end to slavery. President Abraham Lincoln appointed Curtis to his military position, and historians say Mr. Lincoln would have been aware of General Curtis’s views regarding an army that included Black troops.

The contraband encampments did not offer an easy life. They provided safety, shelter, food, and wages for work, but deciding to run away from the plantation was a dangerous decision. Yet, hundreds chose to take that risk.

“They were carried by that desire for freedom,” said Jacques.