In the late summer of 1861 the American Missionary Association sent missionaries to teach and distribute relief goods to the contraband Negroes at Fortress Monroe. This effort began missions that eventually grew into successful experiments to settle and educate the thousands of refugee slaves that flocked to the Hampton Roads area during the Civil War. During 1862 the missions underwent a difficult period struggling to progress in the midst of active military campaigns and conservative politics. The ability of the contrabands to overcome the difficulties of this early period to establish homes and schools, and labor peacefully on the farms influenced federal policy to carry out emancipation. After the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 Norfolk and Portsmouth became the sites of two experiments to discover a workable method of acquainting the newly freed slaves with free labor status in a complex society. The educational aspect of these experiments led to the development of a system of schools encompassing the student population in the Twin Cities, adjoining experimental farms, the efforts of many benevolent societies, and the army. Two factors set the consistency needed to insure steady progress to develop the schools from infancy. The AMA kept a tight rein on the activities of their missionaries, and the army personnel remained in the system throughout the war period. The resulting systemization of the schools in an urban-rural cross section in the mainstream of the active military conflict cast the mold for a workable system for Postwar Reconstruction. The blueprint became the prototype used to organize the Freedmen's Bureau schools in Virginia. These schools matured into one of the most successful state systems within the Bureau, and made education the most lasting contribution of the Reconstruction era.