The Grand Contraband Camp was the first self-contained black community in the United States and occupied the area of the downtown section of the present-day independent city of Hampton, Virginia.
During much of the American Civil War, the commander at Fort Monroe was Brigadier General Benjamin Butler, a lawyer by profession and an opponent of slavery.
Three slaves, Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Sheppard Mallory had been contracted by their owners to the Confederate Army under General Benjamin Huger to help construct defense batteries at Sewell's Point, across the mouth of Hampton Roads from Union-held Fort Monroe.
The contraband slaves of the Virginia Peninsula are credited with establishing the United States' first self-contained African-American community, where they quickly created schools, churches, businesses, and other social organizations.
Many contraband slaves and free blacks voluntarily served in the Union Army, forming the United States Colored Troops (USCT).
Numerous Union officers became more aware of both the potential and plight of the contrabands, and worked for and made contributions to educational efforts for them, even after the War.
Such efforts to teach the former slaves were aided by the American Missionary Association; based in the North, its leaders included both black and white ministers from chiefly Congregational and Presbyterian churches.
Reverend Lewis C. Lockwood arrived at Fort Monroe in September as its first missionary to the former slaves; he sponsored Peake, a Mrs. Bailey and Miss Jennings, and an unnamed free black, for a total of three day schools for contrabands by the winter of 1861.
In addition, former Union Army officers and soldiers and wealthy philanthropists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries created and funded educational efforts for the betterment of African Americans in the South.
In the first decades of the 20th century, the philanthropist Julius Rosenwald collaborated with Dr. Booker T. Washington and his staff at Tuskegee to create an architectural model and matching fund to support improving rural elementary schools for black children, which were historically underfunded by Southern states in their segregated system.
Other philanthropists, such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Rogers, and George Eastman also gave substantial support to Tuskegee and other black institutions.