Hampton, VA, played an important role in the US Civil War in the 1860s. Most famously, the harbor of Hampton Roads was the site of the world’s first sea battle between ironclad navy ships. And the area remains a major shipbuilding center even today, with large construction sites at Newport News and a major US Navy base across the water in Norfolk.
Less well known is Fort Monroe, built on a small island that protects the entrance to Hampton Roads. It’s the largest stone fort ever built in the United States, and even though it’s located in southern Virginia it remained under Union control during the war.
In 1861, three escaped slaves sought refuge at Fort Monroe – rather than return the slaves, the fort commander declared them “contraband of war”. News of this decision traveled quickly, and by the end of the war there was an encampment of more than 10,000 former slaves near the fort.
Near the fort is the campus of Hampton University. The first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in the southern states took place here in 1863, and the tree under which the reading took place is known as the Emancipation Oak.
