in the village of hampton there were a large number of negroes, composed in a great measure of women and children who had fled thither within my lines for protection, who had escaped from marauding rebels who had been gathering up able-bodied blacks to aid them in constructing their batteries on the james and york rivers...first, what shall be done with them? second, what is their state and condition? upon these questions i desire the instruction of the department...are these men, women, and children slaves? are they free? is their condition that of men, women, and children, or of property, or is it a mixed relation? what has been the effect of rebellion and a state of war on their status? when i adopted the theory of treating the able-bodied negro fit to work in the trenches as property liable to be used in aid of rebellion, and so contraband of war, that condition of things was insofar met, as i then and still believe, on a legal and constitutional basis.
