Record #:

43530

Author(s):

Claudia Houston

Abstract:

Through little known information about the New Bern Smallpox Contraband Hospital, we know it was founded January of 1864 in the middle of the Civil War. The term contraband comes from when Union General Benjamin Butler refused to capture the salves Shepard Mallory, Frank Barker, and James Townsend and send them back to their masters. This was when the term contraband was meant to refer to slaves. Through the use of the term contraband this defined the slaves as property so they could not be returned back to their masters. Not long after the Union’s occupation of New Bern there was the spread of Smallpox and Yellow Fever. When servants and captured slaves began to contract Smallpox Vincent Colyer requested General Burnside to create a hospital to take care and vaccinate the “contraband”. This led to the creation of the Contraband Smallpox Hospital of New Bern.

Source:

Journal of the New Bern Historical Society (NoCar F 264 N5 J66), Vol. 27 Issue 1, 2020, p19-28

Subject(s):

Slavery--North Carolina; Smallpox--North Carolina; Civil War--New Bern ; Hospitals--Development