The Contraband Descendants connection
Sharing our stories of heritage from
"Freedom's First Generation."
- Were your ancestors liberated by coming to
Ol'
Point Comfort/Fort Monroe
during the Civil War?
- Does your family go back at least four or five generations in the Hampton Roads Area?
- Ask seniors, matriarchs, and patriarchs about your family history.
** Get Connected and share your story contact us at contrabandhs@gmail.com **
Includes Virginia Freedmen´s Bureau dated from 1865The American Civil War Museum in Richmond did a video series on Emancipation that is named in honor of Mary Peake -- "The Peake Series": https://acwm.org/learn/peake-series/
Nelson Ballard Memorial
Nelson Ballard
Company I, 1st U.S.C. Cav.
1st United States Colored Cavalry
Mustered in at Camp Hamilton, December 22, 1863
Wreath Laying Ceremony (2002) Honoring
USCT Nelson Ballard In 2002, the Contraband Historical Society planned a wreath-laying ceremony honoring USCT Nelson Ballard. Actor Robert Earl Jones bestowed the honors to Mr. Ballard. Members of the 7th New York Cavalry and the 54th Massachusetts presented arms. Vincent Aquino placed an American flag on Nelson Ballard’s grave.
Nelson Ballard’s grave site is located in Hampton, Virginia behind Sentara Careplex in an overgrown area. 50 other graves have been identified by the Archaeology ...Department of William and Mary College. Nelson Ballard represents one of many United States Colored Cavalrymen, or United States Colored Troops, buried here in Hampton.
The USCC and USCT were outstanding men of great courage who fought to preserve the Union while liberating themselves from the iron yoke of slavery.
Nelson Ballard was a native of Nansemond County, Virginia. At the age of 25, he was mustered into military service at Camp Hamilton on December 22, 1863 as a private in Company I, 1st U.S. Colored Cavalry, Union Army.
Camp Hamilton was located on the mainland opposite Fort Monroe (where the downtown section of Phoebus is today). His regiment was mustered out in Brazos Santiago, Texas, February 4, 1866. Nelson Ballard came back to Virginia and settled in Hampton. He died on March 26, 1882. He was buried with military honors by Post No. 9, Grand Army of the Republic.
Brooks Family Connection
400 Years Forward Video Series by Fort Monroe. 'The Descendants' to spotlight historic Hampton Landmarks and the individuals who carry forth their heritage.
Robert L. Brooks, born April18, 1846 in Matthews County, VA., was the son of a slave masters daughter, Nancy Brooks. His father John Brooks was a mulatto slave, who escaped to Canada. Much later Robert Brooks escaped to avoid being sold and went to Point Comfort (Fort Monroe) seeking refuge.
He became a water boy and served President Abraham Lincoln who shook his hand. He also saw Jefferson Davis captured and imprisoned. After the war he ran an experimental farm for Albert Howe of the Normal School (Currently Hampton University). The farm was located just off of Kecoughtan Road in Hampton, Virginia.
Robert Brooks planted magnolia and/or elm trees along Victoria Blvd. when the first trolley line was established on the peninsula.
He married Edith Batten from Smithfield. She was born November 10, 1857. Her father, George O. Batten, a free man, was never a slave. Her mother was Martha Bowden Batten. Her grandfather was Eli Batten the grandson of Chief Osceola of the Seminole tribe. Robert and Edith Brooks had seventeen children. They eventually moved to Isle Of Wight County. He was a successful farmer owning several acres of land and a few homes in his time. Osceola Savage Ailor, his granddaughter, a Historian, Researcher and Co-Author of (Little England Chapel ) along with others researched the above history.
Submitted by Pamela Holley (Great Great Grandaughter of Robert Langley Brooks)
Cross-Borden-Peyton family Connection
Our Cross-Borden-Peyton family direct connection to the Contraband Decision can be traced back through the Freeman’s Bureau files for abandoned lands of Elizabeth City Co., Virginia.
The Freedmen's Bureau, formally known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, was established in 1865 by Congress to help millions of the formerly enslaved and poor whites in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War.
The first member of our family who appeared in these records was Jeremiah Peyton on January 1865. Mr. Peyton rented land in the newly established Butler Farm settlement. The land was the property of Robert Hudgins, Sr., who held the Peyton family in bondage before the Civil War.
Joshua Cross was employed as a watchman on the Downey Farm settlement in August 1865 and was paid $10 per month!; The equivalent of $146 in today’s money. Within two years after the end of the Civil War both Joshua Cross and Jeremiah Peyton were self-employed as farmers.
Submitted by Bracey Boone (Great Great Grandson of Jeremiah Peyton)
Rev. L. C. Lockwood was the Chaplain of the Fort Monroe “Contrabands”; his marriage records of contrabands provide a hint to our past.
American Missionary Association (A.M.A) was making plans to send teachers and books to educate the 700 Negroes within Union lines in Virginia.
The Reverend L. C. Lockwood went to Fortress Monroe in early September and opened a Sunday school. Two days later a day school for freedmen was established near the site where the first shipload of slaves landed in America in 1619. The school was a success, and several more schools and churches were started under A.M.A. auspices in subsequent months.
See if your family name is on his marriage records.
Recovery from the burning of Hampton
"The burning of Hampton changed everything. It was the first act of total war -- and part of the revolution here on the Peninsula that redefined how the Civil War was going to be fought and what it was about," historian John V. Quarstein says. -Daily Press archives 2016
Join us May 4, 2019 at Fort Monroe
to commemorate our ancestors.
Pamela Holley: CHS Contraband Descendant Advisor
