A dramatic historical account details the critical cooperation of a white Civil War general and a formerly enslaved Black man. As implied in the foreword, many enslaved people fled Virginia during the Civil War, desperate to prevent family separation as Black men were sent away to be exploited in the war effort. As the narrative opens in May 1861, George Scott has been hiding out in the woods for two years. When he witnesses Black people entering nearby Fortress Monroe, he determines that it must be a safe place for those escaping slavery. There he meets Major General Franklin Butler, who has decided to shelter the escapees “as contraband of war”—after all, the Confederacy, now “a foreign country,” intends to use Black men’s labor in the war effort. Because he has become so familiar with the woods, Scott agrees to serve as a spy for Butler, who hopes to track down a Confederate encampment. In return, Butler writes a letter beseeching President Lincoln and Congress to free all the Black people being held as contraband. Back matter details the aftermath of this event as well as the legacies of the two men. Full-page, earth-toned watercolor illustrations create an immersive sense of time and place.   (Ages 7-10)

In this dramatic Civil War story, a courageous enslaved fugitive teams with a cunning Union general to save a Union fort from the Confederates–and triggers the end of slavery in the United States. This is the first children's nonfiction book about a Black unsung hero who remains relevant today and to the Black Lives Matter movement. 

On the night Virginia secedes from the Union, three enslaved men approach Fortress Monroe. Knowing that Virginia's secession meant they would be separated from their families and sent farther south to work for the Confederacy, the men decided to plead for sanctuary. And they were in luck.
 
The fort's commander, Benjamin Butler, retained them--and many more that followed--by calling them "contraband of war." Butler depended on the contrabands to provide information about the Confederates. He found the perfect partner in George Scott, one of the contrabands, whose heroism saved the fort from enemy hands. And, it was the plight of the contrabands that convinced President Lincoln that slavery MUST be abolished and inspired him to write his Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in the rebellious states.