Thread by @michaelharriot

Before everyone leaves this app, I want to make a confession

I'm planning a robbery

I already have a target, a crew & a blueprint, I just need 1 more thing:

Will you help me recreate the greatest Black on Black crime in US history?

A story
An announcement
A (final) thread

On Thursday, May 23, 1861, Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Shepard Mallory orchestrated the greatest heist in American history.

Less than 6 weeks after the start of the Civil War, the enslaved men were essentially donated to the Virginia Confederate Militia to dig ditches

As they worked near the exact same spot where "20& Odd" Africans arrived 1619, the men spotted a boat.

Of course they skedaddled. Scrammed. Vamoosed. They ran like Josh Hawley in an insurrection, crossed the river and presented themselves to Union Gen, George Butler

This put Butler in a bind (Not like a SLAVERY bind; more like a white bind. Like when you want your kids to learn history but you also don't want them seeing photos of their segregationist mee-maw spitting on Black kids. You know... like a "pickle" or a "pinch")

Butler was an attorney, so he knew the escapees were legally considered property. According to the rules of war, taking an enemy's property is considered "looting." But Butler didn't actually STEAL the men. Technically, the runaways were thieves...

Who had stolen themselves.

But instead of accusing the men of committing Black on-Black crime, Butler searched his law books and found a loophole.

Yes, the men were property. But they were being used as tools of war–no different than an enemy ship, rifle or cannon that he was allowed to confiscate.

When the Confederates threatened to sue the Butler for the return of their human chattel,* Butler responded:

"I shall hold these negroes as contraband of war..."

*The loser who started a war and threatened to sue when he lost money was named Charles, NOT DRAKE

Baker, Sheperd and Mallory were the first influencers because the news went viral. 8 more runaways showed up at the Union camp on Sunday. Monday, 47 escapees arrived. By Wed, fugitive slaves were arriving by the hour

Within weeks, there was a "Contraband" pandemic.

Escapees would show up at Union forts, where they would be sent to what was essentially a refugee camp. They began working for the army, building homes and helping others escape.

There was only 1 person more pissed than the confederates:

Abraham Lincoln.

For 2 years, Lincoln had told everyone:

"I couldn't free the slaves if I wanted to... Not that I want to. Trust me, as commander in chief, I WILL NOT FREE THE SLAVES!"

But by acknowledging the Confederates as a separate country, Butler put Congress in it

So many enslaved people were running away, Congress passed the Confiscation Act to back up Butler's legal premise. A year later they passed the Second Confiscation Act freeing anyone enslaved by a Confederate soldier or even Confederate sympathizers

An estimated 100,000 people had unenslaved themselves and gone to more than 100 camps around the country.

By comparison, the Emancipation Proclamation only freed the 75,000 people in the Confederate states that were also under Union control

Black people freed THEMSELVES.

Even though these self-emancipated ppl were no longer property, they were NOT citizens. Before the 14th Amendment passed, "Contraband" was the legal status of people living in more than 100 Contraband Camps scattered around the country

Here's a map
google.com/maps/d/u/0/edi…

These "Contraband Camps" were the origin story of many Black towns, HBCUs and neighborhoods. They produced 200 K-12 schools, 12 HBCUs, & 1000s of Black veterans

Harriet Tubman freed more people while living in SC's contraband camp than as a conductor on the Underground Railroad

Black neighborhoods in KC, Nashville & St. Louis were contraband camps. Mary Peake, a free Black woman, held reading classes under a tree at the original VA camp until classes got too big

But no one calls it the "Grand Contraband Camp" anymore

They call it Hampton University

Contraband Camps were also where freedmen held rallies to push for the passage of the 14th Amendment & 15th Amendments defining citizenship, due process and giving EVERYONE the right to vote FOR EVERYONE. Contraband Campers INVENTED the American education system as we know it.

I think about this story a lot.

For instance, have you ever wondered why is it that the most well-resourced media outlets in the world want to talk to a Black person about politics, they call a rapper, actor or an "influencer?"

How did everything Black become "woke?" or CRT?

Seriously. How did every major outlet in America collectively agree AT THE SAME FUCKING TIME to label the shit Black people said in Contraband Camps 200 years as "woke"?

South Carolina's 1868 Constitution was written by a majority Black delegation WHO FREED THEMSELVES

Not only did Robert Smalls, a MAN WHO FREED HIMSELF, help create the American education system as we know it, he ensured that it would not promote religious or "sectarian principles"

A white minority undid that constitution.

If CRT exists, it's because WHITE PEOPLE DID IT.

I told someone that I knew Kimberlé Crenshaw and they didn't believe me. I understand why.

The law professor who literally coined the term Critical Race Theory is walking around living and breathing.

But when a white guy with literally no education, experience or expertise in the subject pulled a definition out of his anus, EVERY SINGLE NEWS OUTLET IN AMERICA simultaneously said:

"Forget truth and facts and history. Let's go with the white guy's definition."

My point is:

What if we just stole ourselves?

What if we didn't wait for the Washington Post to endorse a candidate who 98% of the descendants of the people who CREATED DEMOCRACY, education and the DEFINITION OF "AMERICAN CITIZEN"?

What if we listened to the scholars who walked into the camp and taught us under a tree instead of the windbags who helped normalize Trump, the fake definition of woke and every right-wing lie since the 90s?

What if we built a camp?

mediaite.com/election-2024/…

What if someone did the original Black on Black crime?

But this thread is not about white people

This is a manifesto
It is a declaration of independence
It is the original Black on Black crime

This thread is an announcement.

I'm building a camp.

contrabandcamp.com/about

Contraband Camp is a collective of thinkers, writers, journalists, artists and creators.

Instead of viral thinkpieces, our contributors will engage in rigorous reporting, expert analysis and unapologetically Black dialogues on issues that affect the lives of Black people.

But it is not just serious analysts like @ElieNYC and award-winning editors like @GenettaAdams. Our camp includes music critics and comedians and storytellers who you know and trust.

ContrabandCamp is not ad-supported, we are building it ourselves.

@ElieNYC @GenettaAdams Before camp begins on Jan. 20, our first 5,000 campers can subscribe for 1.99/month or 19.99/year.

HBCU students can subscribe for 99 cents a month.

contrabandcamp.com/4e06f965

Anyway, I just wanted to let y'all know.

Plus, I've always wanted to write a manifesto:

contrabandcamp.com/p/welcome-to-c…

Bye Twitter.

It's been fun.

But we have work to do.

And as the first Contraband Campers probably said before stealing themselves:

See y'all in camp

If you’re not an HBCU student, you can subscribe here

contrabandcamp.com/subscribe?next…