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D. C. Emancipation Act [ABCDE] VOLUME 12, ISSUE 3 D. C. Emancipation Act ■ Historic Background: Slavery in the District of Columbia ■ Transcription: “An Act for the Release of certain Persons held to Service or Labor in the District of Columbia” (April 16, 1862) ■ Discussion Questions: After Reading the D.C. Emancipation Act ■ Primary Source: Schedule of Manumission to John A. Smith, Clerk of Circuit Court of the District of Columbia ■ Primary Source: Petition Submitted by Clark Mills ■ Discussion Questions: Study the Emancipation Act Petitions ■ Washington Post Reprint: “Slave named Philip Reid helped create Statue of Freedom that sits atop Capitol” ■ Resource: Philip Reid ■ Activity: Think Like a Journalist ■ Answers: After Reading the D.C. Emancipation Act, Study the Emancipation Act Petitions November 5, 2012 © 2012 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY VOLUME 12, ISSUE 3 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Slavery in the District of Columbia As settlers in the New World amassed more lands, they sales abounded. Slave markets were held at Lafayette Square needed more laborers. Europeans who did not have financial directly north of the White House, and in large markets on resources, but were able to work and had skills in needed what is now the National Mall. Numerous smaller “slave pens” services, became endentured servants. They usually had to work were positioned in “nearly every neighborhood and rural area seven years without pay to cover their passage to the colonies, of the District,” as reported in Historical Political Economy of their food and lodging. They were then free to work and live Washington. One of the best known slave pens was owned by wherever they wanted. At first this worked for landowners, but a man named Robey. It and a slave pen owned by slave trader as they needed long-term laborers, they turned to slavery. James Burch were located near today’s Smithsonian Air and Slave trade routes were already established. Spanish and Space Museum and the Department of Education. Portuguese landowners had been using slaves for hundreds of As early as the 1830s, abolitionists focused on the presence years in their empires — in Hispanola, Mexico, Puerto Rico of slaves and slave markets in D.C. Publications such as Slave and Brazil. Massachusetts was the first English colony to make Market of America reported examples and illustrated the acts slavery legal, in 1641. they abhorred. The capture in 1848 of slaves, many of whom “When the District of Columbia was established in 1800, the worked in Washington homes and hotels, aboard The Pearl laws of Maryland, including its slave laws, remained in force. brought more attention to slavery, especially in D.C. Then- Additional laws on slavery and free blacks were then made by Congressman Abraham Lincoln introduced a bill on January the District, and by Southern standards its slave codes were 10, 1849, for the gradual abolition of slavery in the District of moderate,” according to the Library of Congress American Columbia. Treasures Memory website. Examples of the “moderate” By the 1850s, D.C. was home to the largest slave market in provisions include allowing slaves to hire out their services and North America. The Compromise of 1850 abolished the slave to live apart from their masters. trade in D.C. on September 20, 1850, but allowed slavery to Slaves were treated as property to be owned and sold. With continue there. Records indicate that by 1860 D.C. was home D.C. located between plantations, north and south of it, slave to 11,131 free blacks and 3,185 slaves. Celebration of the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia, April 19, 1866 This illustration from Harper's Weekly depicts African Americans celebrating the fourth anniversary of the bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. WOOD ENGRAVING FROM SKETCH BY F. DEILMAN, PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS November 5, 2012 © 2012 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY VOLUME 12, ISSUE 3 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Slavery in the District of Columbia, continued Sources The National Archives summarizes the last step of abolishing http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm009.html slavery in D.C. — The District of Columbia Emancipation Act: Slavery in the Capital http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/ On April 16, 1862, President Abraham dc_emancipation_act/ Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the The District of Columbia Emancipation Act District of Columbia. Passage of this law http://mrlincolnandfreedom.org/content_inside. came 8 1/2 months before President Lincoln asp?ID=37&subjectID=3 District of Columbia issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The act brought to a conclusion decades of agitation http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3139.html E.S. Abdy description of a Washington, D.C., slave pen aimed at ending what antislavery advocates called “the national shame” of slavery in the http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story. php?storyId=10103500 nation’s capital. It provided for immediate Failed Escape Sheds New Light on D.C. Slavery emancipation, compensation to former owners http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc30.htm who were loyal to the Union of up to $300 for Lafayette Square Historic District each freed slave, voluntary colonization of www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html former slaves to locations outside the United The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act States, and payments of up to $100 for each http://faculty.isi.org/catalog/resource/view/id/1067 person choosing emigration. Over the next 9 Slave Market of America months, the Board of Commissioners appointed http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/5913.html Congress bans slave trade in D.C. Sept. 20, 1850 to administer the act approved 930 petitions, completely or in part, from former owners for the freedom of 2,989 former slaves. Although its combination of emancipation, compensation to owners, and colonization did not serve as a model for the future, the District of Columbia Emancipation Act was an early signal of slavery’s death. November 5, 2012 © 2012 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY VOLUME 12, ISSUE 3 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program TRANSCRIPTION An Act for the Release of certain Persons held to Service or Labor in the District of Columbia Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives annexed, the value in money of the several claims by them of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That found to be valid: Provided, however, That the entire sum so all persons held to service or labor within the District of appraised and apportioned shall not exceed in the aggregate an Columbia by reason of African descent are hereby discharged amount equal to three hundred dollars for each person shown and freed of and from all claim to such service or labor; and to have been so held by lawful claim: And provided, further, from and after the passage of this act neither slavery nor That no claim shall be allowed for any slave or slaves brought involuntary servitude, except for crime, whereof the party shall into said District after the passage of this act, nor for any be duly convicted, shall hereafter exist in said District. slave claimed by any person who has borne arms against the Government of the United States in the present rebellion, or Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all persons loyal to in any way given aid or comfort thereto, or which originates the United States, holding claims to service or labor against in or by virtue of any transfer heretofore made, or which persons discharged therefrom by this act, may, within shall hereafter be made by any person who has in any manner ninety days from the passage thereof, but not thereafter, aided or sustained the rebellion against the Government of the present to the commissioners hereinafter mentioned their United States. respective statements or petitions in writing, verified by oath or affirmation, setting forth the names, ages, and personal Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That said commissioners description of such persons, the shall, within nine months from manner in which said petitioners the passage of this act, make acquired such claim, and any a full and final report of their facts touching the value thereof, proceedings, findings, and and declaring his allegiance to appraisement, and shall deliver the Government of the United the same to the Secretary of the States, and that he has not borne Treasury, which report shall arms against the United States be deemed and taken to be during the present rebellion, nor conclusive in all respects, except in any way given aid or comfort as hereinafter provided; and thereto: Provided, That the oath the Secretary of the Treasury of the party to the petition shall shall, with like exception, cause not be evidence of the facts the amounts so apportioned to therein stated. said claims to be paid from the Treasury of the United States Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, to the parties found by said That the President of the United report to be entitled thereto as States, with the advice and aforesaid, and the same shall be consent of the Senate, shall received in full and complete appoint three commissioners, compensation: Provided, That residents of the District of in cases where petitions may Columbia, any two of whom be filed presenting conflicting shall have power to act, who claims, or setting up liens, said shall receive the petitions above commissioners shall so specify in mentioned, and who shall said report, and payment shall not investigate and determine the be made according to the award validity and value of the claims of said commissioners until a therein presented, as aforesaid, NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION period of sixty days shall have and appraise and apportion, The original Act passed by Congress to end slavery in the elapsed, during which time any under the proviso hereto District of Columbia, April 16, 1862.
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