The Mathews Museum reopens for 2025 on Saturday, Feb. 1, with an exhibit, “Towards Freedom” on loan from the Hampton Museum.
This exhibit to recognize Black History Month tells the story of men, women and children who escaped slavery to Fort Monroe in Hampton. A release said the exhibit “explores critical questions surrounding slavery and the individuals who changed the world by their actions just one month into the American Civil War.”
The story begins, the release said, on May 25, 1861, when three young men, Shepard Mallory, Frank Baker, and James Townsend, escaped to union-held Fort Monroe near Hampton and petitioned for their freedom. In response to their actions, Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, commander of Union forces in the area, proclaimed them “Contraband of War.” Word spread and enslaved people brought their families and gathered by the thousands at Fort Monroe, known by the Contrabands as “Freedom’s Fort.” The exhibit looks at the lives of these of people who came to Hampton,...