Contraband Slave Civil War Envelope/Cover

Civil War cover/envelope depicting a freed slave "contraband." The political cartoon appears to express the seeming futility of the southern cause- that while plantation owners went off to fight in the war, their slaves were able to escape and aid in the Union effort to prevent secession. Thousands of "contraband" former slaves joined Union forces as laborers, and eventually were able to form "colored" regiments that fought in the war.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Abolition, Slavery, Abraham Lincoln]