which is ellory steadman's sketch of one family coming aboard. most weren't as well dressed as this fellow seems to be. most, perhaps, of the younger men were taken into the naval service. other families, elderly people, women, children were then colonized along the coast of the on shore islands where they made a rehearsal for freedom in sustaining themselves, growing vegetables for their own sustenance and even growing cash cows for export and managing to make a tidy little profit. meanwhile, the men who volunteered for navy service became part of the crews, the first truly integrated military force in american history. there were, of course, black soldiers in the civil war, as we all know, but they were deployed in segregated regiments. hard to do that on a ship. ships are crowded places. about 15% of those crews, 15 to 18%, were made up of african-americans. many of them as former slaves known in the vernacular of the day as contrabands. for the confederates, blockades were more of a nuisance. blockade running sustained their armies in the fie