this is where he, you know, he had visited fort monroe. , as i sai norfolk, portsmouth area. and he's actually buried in hampton. and shows of the barracks and how women, african-american for the who were actually inside fort. and so there were was a lot of activity inside of the fo seekers were actually housed outside of the fort with only a few exceptions. this is e of the places called slab town that is now the section phoebus. phoebus used to be a tiny little town outside. so you had hampton, which was a a village that became a city. and then you have phoebus. that was a little that ended up getting annexed into into hampton. what's interesting about. excuse me, phoebus, that it has some streets that just the grand contraband camp lets you know who used to live there, have a street called union street have a street called lincoln street. well, you know, confederates did not name those streets. union and lincoln and, same thing. they had similar names in the grand contraband camp. you had. so this this kind of shows you some othe houses. some of them that were now fixed up.

in fact, many of the soldiers who were being sent down to fort monroe were resettled in what is now on the grounds of the veterans hospital and part of the hampton university. and they named that camp hamilton because the fort itself was on an island and there and the water, the fresh was limited. and so many of these people were coming in, had to be resettled somewhere else. but that wasn't the primary of the military. and here you have this dilemma. so many those individuals who are arriving, they some of them were able to carry a few household items. some had bundles of food, many did. some had extra clothing, though many didn't. most only had the clothes on backs. they travel at night, whether it was by water or through the woods. and they endured untold hardships. and we will only get glimpses of what they experienced in missionary accounts of people they encountered and would ask them what what when you arrived, how did you get here? what were your experiences? and they just tell you little bits and, pieces in the same way that people who have been refugees years and they're flee

iss where he, you know, he had visited fort monroe. he was, as i said, thelk portsmouth area. and he's actually buried in hampton. and this sth barracks and how women, a-amecan women were often the laundress for t weractually inside fort. lot of activity inside of the fort. of those freedom seekers actually housed outside of the fort with only a few eons. this is one of the places called slab town that is now the section of phoebus. phoebus used to be a tiny little town outside. so you had hampton, which was a a village that became a city. and then you have phoebus. that was a little that ended up getting annexed into into hampton. what's interesting about. excuse me, phoebus, that it has some streets that just the grand contraband camp lets you know who used to live there, have a street called union street have a street called lincoln street. well, you know, confederates did not name those streets. union and lincoln and, same thing. they had similar names in the grand contraband camp. you had. so this this kind of shows you some of theses. some of them that were now fixed up.

in fact, many of the soldiers who were being sent down to fort monroe were resettled in what is now on the grounds of the veterans hospital and part of the hampton university. and they named that camp hamilton because the fort itself was on an island and there and the water, the fresh was limited. and so many of these people were coming in, had to be resettled somewhere else. but that wasn't the primary of the military. and here you have this dilemma. so many those individuals who are arriving, they some of them were able to carry a few household items. some had bundles of food, many did. some had extra clothing, though many didn't. most only had the clothes on backs. they travel at night, whether it was by water or through the woods. and they endured untold hardships. and we will only get glimpses of what they experienced in missionary accounts of people they encountered and would ask them what what when you arrived, how did you get here? what were your experiences? and they just tell you little bits and, pieces in the same way that people who have been refugees years and they're flee

so bringing the troops by to fort monroe and then marching the peninsula to attack richmond from, the south east, and to begin with actually went weh lots of help from union. quatermass star montgomery maggs, among others. in march 1862, mcclellan manages to transport this enormous army and all that came with it to fort monroe. so in about three weeks they moved 400 plus ships, an estimated 121,000 men, 300 cannons, more than 1000 wagons, 15,000 animals. it just an amazing feat of military. so they there by april 4th they're ready to begin moving up the peninsula but it's when they begin to yorktown that they face problems as they begin to meet resistance this way, mcclellan starts to get worried. and at this point he's got about 55,000 men on the move. there are only 13,000 confederates at this point. and the beginning of their campaign around yorktown. but mcclellan, you know, and you know this about him already, he always thinks he's outnumbered and john magruder, who's the confederate commander at yorktown in this early part of the campaign, he famously plays on fears by march, hi

you see they hoped to sail from fort monroe. go up through the chesapeake bay go to baltimore and from baltimore. they hoped to get on rail lines. perhaps head west to cincinnati to louisville. so these are soldiers who claimed that they are going to kentucky to tennessee and other places. but hearing from an exasperated general lew wallace in baltimore. especially in the wake of lincoln's assassination grant is going to change the terms that he offered at appomattox, especially in regards to that special orders number 73 that came on the morning of april 10th. let me read to you from grants response to wallace. it was no part of the agreement that we were to transport or feed paroled prisoners. by the terms of the surrender they were allowed to return to their homes and i ordered that their paroles should be a pass to go through our lines where it was necessary to do so to reach their homes and that when they traveled on roads or boats run exclusively by the government, no fair would be collected. i did not calculate that men f

that would see this model made real and manifested in what has forgotten now is that all began at fort monroe. freedom's. thank you, john. i am mcghee and i have the pleasure of introducing our keynote conversationalist for this afternoon and i would like to introduce you all to these two brilliant minds that we will be hearing from this afternoon. first, we will hear from dr. noelle trent, who is director of interpretation and collections and an education at the national civil rights museum in memphis, tennessee. dr. trent earned her in public history and a ph.d. in united states history from howard university, a proud hbcu in washington, d.c.. so i'm sure. there's some asuu alarms in the house, of course. dr. trent is also an accomplished public and she's worked with several noted organizations and projects including the national park service, the frederick douglass national historic site and the smithsonian institution national museum of african american history and culture. before she took those brilliant talents to memphis, she has been a contributor. the african american intellectual hi