Former Slave Elizabeth Keckley and the “Contraband” of Washington DC, 1862.

from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6223:

"Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born in slavery in Virginia around 1818 and purchased her freedom in 1855. In 1862 she was living in Washington DC and working as a skilled dressmaker; her principal client was Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the president. Keckley sympathized with the former slaves, or “contraband,” as they were called, who fled to the relative safety of Washington during the Civil War. The Contraband Relief Association, which Keckley founded and headed, gathered funds and clothing for the poor former slaves. Yet, as her rather condescending remarks make clear, Keckley felt superior to the people she helped. Keckley’s memoir Behind the Scenes was published in 1868. The book included revelations about Mary Lincoln’s private life, and, feeling betrayed, the former First Lady shunned Keckley. Her dressmaking business declined, and she died in poverty in 1907 at the Home for Destitute Women and Children in Washington, one of the institutions she had helped to found."

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On the condition of contraband camps (near Hilton Head, SC), from the New York Herald, February 27, 1863, 1.

In his correspondence, Whitman makes a reference to the squalid conditions of the contraband camps as described in this article:

The smallpox is just now prevailing to some extent at Beaufort. Its victims are principally among the contrabands, though six or eight cases were discovered last week among the soldiers of the Eighth Main regiment. The negroes, by their filthy habits, are constantly contracting and disseminating the loathsome disease. Surgeon Crane, the Medical Director, has advised their removal beyond the limits of the city, and Gen. Hunter has directed that all negroes not necessary in the Quartermaster's Department shall be so disposed of. The necessity of this measure is apparent when it is considered that the city of Beaufort abounds in hospitals, in two of which the smallpox has already appeared. During the hot months to come it is not unlikely that most of the invalid soldiers of the department will be transferred to Beaufort for treatment, and banishing the negroes is but the beginning of the work of purifying and disinfecting the town. The only deaths from smallpox that have come to my knowledge have occurred in the colored regiment, which is encamped about four miles south of Beaufort, near the river bank.