What's New
A cultural event to help keep our heritage alive!
2024 African Landing Day Commemoration
and Soil Blending Ceremony
Soil Blending and Sunrise Cleansing Service
On August 23rd through the 25th, members of the community came together at Fort Monroe, as they do each August, to commemorate the landing of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia. Their historic arrival still profoundly impacts the United States and its people.
This year, they added a soil-blending ceremony that will mark the site of the African Landing Memorial, which is slated to be completed in 2026. Soil from Angola will be blended with soil from Fort Monroe and other historically connected Virginia sites.
This event was sponsored by the Fort Monroe Authority, National Park Service, Project 1619, Inc., and the City of Hampton, Virginia.
Remembrance and Reflection Petal Ceremony
“We’d love to support this film,” Lukens Sanchez Charitable Giving Fund
“Wow! We’ll definitely be making a donation.” Jim and Barbara Bowles
“The ultimate in 'bridging' conversation.” Filmmaker Rosemary Smith
THE GATE: The Untold Story of America’s First Contrabands is the story of the first Contraband families and the community they created in the burnt ruins of Hampton, Virginia. Contrabands were enslaved Africans in the United States who sought protection behind Union lines during the Civil War.
Enjoy videos of our 2024 Contraband Commemoration
Join Us! May 18, 2024 Annual Contraband Decision Commemoration
If you find you can not participate in-person please join via Zoom.
Topic: "Escape to Freedom" Contraband Commemoration 2024
Time: May 18, 2024 | 07:00 PM EST
Please RSVP to win a special gift: https://forms.gle/kQRz6N7nSRLncxA3A
**CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER**
May 24, 2024 Annual Contraband Decision Commemoration
Join us for our
Contraband Candlelight Vigil and Procession
Cannon Park, Fort Monroe | 6:00 PM
May 24, 2023 Annual Contraband Commemoration
Contraband Historical Society presented another rousing commemoration on sacred ground!
SAY THEIR NAMES - Remembering the Civil War Contrabands
On May 24th, 2023 at 7pm at the historic Chapel of the Centurion at Fort Monroe, the Contraband Historical Society brought together local “Contraband” descendants with a 3rd-great-grandson of Major General Benjamin Butler. The Society annually commemorates this date in 1861, when local enslaved men Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory and James Townsend fled to Fort Monroe and requested asylum. Their actions inspired Butler to make a bold decision that day, to grant them sanctuary. As a result, Fort Monroe and Hampton became a haven for thousands of runaways in their fight for self-emancipation during the Civil War. This often overlooked piece of American history and about CHS’s many new initiatives to bring the ancestors' histories into the light.
"Some people don't realize the history that's here. Descendants of these contraband slaves created a moral, spiritual and economically viable community for blacks, and the houses that many people now live in once belonged to the contraband." Gerri L. Hollins
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Attorney and genealogist Bessida White, who recently discovered her own Contraband roots
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Living history reenactor Richard Scott, who appears as General Butler
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Historian Dr. William Wiggins who appears as Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Major Christian Fleetwood
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Apostle Harriet Askew singing “Go Down, Moses”
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Dance program by Tyshawna Webb and the Built to Worship Dance Group.
3D Printed Contraband Cabin by Hampton University Architecture Major
Professor Camina Sanchez and student Thomas presented CHS with a 3D printed model of a Contraband Camp cabin.
PGC LMP Essay and Creative Arts Contests Winners
June 22, 2022 -- The Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project is honored and excited to congratulate the winners of our racial justice essay contest and our racial justice creative arts contest. Each of our winners is a student at a high school in Prince George’s County.
Full article: https://pgclmp.org/pgc-lmp-essay-and-creative-arts-contests-winnersJoin us for the May 21, 2022 Jonah's Run's first feature lenght film Screening
You are invited to view "DINNER AND A MOVEMENT"
Sat, May 21 2022 | 06:00 pm - 09:00 pm | The HIVE by City of Virginia Beach | Virginia Beach, VA
Help us remember and promote the legacy of three unsung Black American heroes Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend with the help of Major General Benjamin Butler. Their courage was the true flashpoint of freedom in America.
Tickets $25
Join us for
Remembering the "Contraband" and Their Desendants - Forum
May 22, 2022 |
4 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
| Fort Monroe Visitor Center |
30 Ingalls Road, Fort Monroe
A forum presented by the Contraband Historical Society, remembering the Civil War “contrabands” – the first of the enslaved to forge a path to freedom – and bringing their story down to the present day through descendants who will share their family histories. Also live-streamed online on the Fort Monroe Authority website. Free.
Join us for our
ANNUAL COMMEMORATION OF THE 1861 CONTRABAND DECISION
May 24, 2022
| 7 p.m.-8 p.m.
| Cannon Park, Ruckman Road, Fort Monroe
Ceremony by the Contraband Historical Society marking the 161st anniversary of the May 24, 1861, “Contraband Decision” at Fort Monroe, The Contraband Decision was the first successful action by an official of the United States Government to confiscate enslaved people from their enslavers. That action signaled the beginning of the end of slavery in the United States. Featuring a presentation on the life of Harry Jarvis, contraband and soldier, who liberated himself and then fought to liberate others. Ceremony concludes with a candlelight procession from Cannon Park through the old fort’s main gate into “Freedom’s Fortress.” Free.
Stingray Point Contraband
Six enslaved men (Alexander Franklin, David Harris, John Hunter, Miles Hunter, Peter Hunter, and Samuel Hunter), fearing impressment into Confederate service, sought refuge in the Stingray Point Lighthouse near here on 15 July 1861 and hailed the USS Mount Vernon. Similar escapes followed. The U.S. Secretary of the Navy, following the contraband theory established at Fort Monroe, authorized the employment of self-emancipated men and, in Sept. 1861, approved their enlistment in the U.S. Navy, nearly a year before black men could enlist in the U.S. Army. After serving in the Navy, Harris is the only one of the six men known to have returned to this community, where he had been enslaved.
www.mpaagenealogicalsociety.org
CHS's 2021 Annual "Contraband" Commemoration
At Fort Monroe
Click to View Commemoration Videos
On behalf of the Contraband Historical Society, the National Park Service, along with the Fort Monroe Authority, and The City of Hampton we welcome you to the 160th Anniversary Commemorating “The Legacy of the Contraband Decision” here at Fortress Monroe. May 24th, is Contraband Day as proclaimed in the City of Hampton. We honor those men Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory and James Townsend for their risk-taking initiative cemented by Major Benjamin F. Butler’s decision, not to return them to their enslaver.
We also want to remember those thousands of freedom seeking ‘Contrabands’ who followed–including some of your ancestors who traveled many miles to get here. We also want to remember the Contraband Historical Society’s Founder Gerri L. Hollins and co-Founders like Sister Joan Charles – an extraordinary researcher, and Mrs. Elnora Welbeck, and also those who worked to preserve the history and this Place like Mrs. Dorothy Rouse Bottom, Dr. H.O. Malone, Dr. Robert F. Engs, James Hanesworth and others that each of you know and would like to remember them. We welcome you to “Freedom’s Fortress”....your Heritage of Freedom”
CHS's 2021 Commemorative Video
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic
All planned future events through June 2020 have been cancelled.
Thank you to our amazing supporters and stay safe!
Fort Monroe National Monument has announced there will be no public programs at the fort through June 10, putting it in line with the state of Virginia's instructions. This confirms -- as you may have already supposed -- that the programs the Contraband Society has planned for next month have been cancelled.
* No Living History Tour on May 2, 2020
* No "Prelude to Freedom" presentation on May 16, 2020
* No Hampton Heritage Day on May 9, 2020
* CHS will not have a Contraband Commemoration Event Day on May 24, 2020
CHS review of 2019
Contraband Decision Re-enaction done for the Boy Scouts Troop 54 in Yorktown 11-12-2019
Celebrating an evening with Boy Scout Troop 54 at their Diversity Dinner – Encourage inclusion of people from all walks of life and celebrate/promote diversity within Scouting.
Thanks goes out to Bethel High School drama teacher Adrienne Barker who narrates, General Benjamin Butler played by CHS board member, Tony Gabriele, James Townsend: Chad Johnson, Frank Baker: Khacy Evans, and Shepard Mallory: Jeremiah Saint Preux. Khacy and Jeremiah are Bethel drama student volunteers.
Retracing Path of First Slaves in Virginia
This August marks the 400th anniversary of the landing of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia. Their arrival was the start of what would become one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history, 224 years of slavery. VOA's Chris Simkins takes us to the place history was made and reveals how these first African slaves, along with the many who followed, and their descendants, shaped the course of a nation. (From https://www.voanews.com)
Friday, May 24 2019
6 PM | Fort Monroe, Canon Park
Saturday, May 4, 2019
11 AM - 3 pm | Fort Monroe, 41 BERNARD ROAD
757-848-6462
In this year 2019 of commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first Africans' arrival in English America -- and which led to the coming of slavery to this country -- we need to also celebrate the beginning of the end of slavery, in the very same place. The Contraband Historical Society is commemorating the first liberation of the enslaved in the Civil War, the historic "contraband decision" of 1861 at Fort Monroe. We need your help to celebrate this history which must not be forgotten, at our May 2019 event and beyond. Please come out and/or CONTRIBUTE to help keep this heritage alive!
WAVY-TV personalities Don Roberts and Anita Blanton
Hampton Dignitaries will be introduced by MCs
11 AM: A procession of African dancers and drummers, African-American heritage groups, and community representatives will proceed through the Main Gate to the Parade Grounds honoring the many enslaved people who walked through the fort's gates on their path to freedom.
Noon: Stage program:
* Music from the USCT Ensemble and Musical Mosaic
* “Contraband” Descendant Speakers
* Excerpts from “Prelude to Freedom,” musical drama by CHS founder, the late Gerri Hollins, directed by Charity N. Robinson and Minister of Music Pastor Thomas Dudley, Sr.
2 PM: Concert by Steve Wilson and band. Wilson is an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, former member of the Smithsonian Jazz Orchestra, and performed with Lionel Hampton and Chick Corea, among others.
* The Buffalo Riders and Union re-enactors
View the 2019 Souvenir Program Book .pdf
Thank you to our sponsors and donors,
The sponsorship your company provided enabled us to have a remarkably memorable event. Thank you for finding the commemoration of the ´Contraband Decision´ presented through ´Escape to Freedom´ on May 4th, 2019 a worthy cause. This momentous event was highly enjoyed and applauded by all. Thanks for your interest and confidence in the Contraband Historical Society. Our partners, National Park Service and Fort Monroe Authority greatly appreciate your support as well. We all look forward to working together again.
Very best reqards,
The Contraband Historical Society
"Prelude to Freedom" players Dennis Dicus, Brian Cheeseman, Shawneeque Randall, Tony Gabriele, Kecia Capers, Chad Johnson, and Lamont Williams (not pictured)
Anthony Gabriele: CHS Treasurer and Gen. Benjamin Butler re-enactor
The Contraband Descendants Connection
