Ending Slavery
in the
Nation’s Capital
The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act http://dc.gov/emancipationday April 16, 1862 T
FOREWORD
his booklet describes events related to the abolition of slavery in
Washington, DC, which occurred on April 16, 1862, nearly nine
months before the more famous “Emancipation Proclamation” was issued. The District of Columbia, which became the nation’s capital in
1791, was by 1862 a city of contrasts: a thriving center for slavery and the
slave trade, and a hub of anti-slavery activity among abolitionists of all
colors. Members of Congress represented states in which slavery was the
backbone of the economy, and those in which slavery was illegal.
One result of the intense struggle over slavery was the DC Compensated
Emancipation Act of 1862, passed by the Congress and signed by President Abraham Lincoln. The act ended slavery in Washington, DC, freed
3,100 individuals, reimbursed those who had legally owned them and
offered the newly freed women and men money to emigrate. It is this
legislation, and the courage and struggle of those who fought to make it a
reality, that we commemorate every April 16, DC Emancipation Day.
Though the Compensated Emancipation Act was an important legal and
symbolic victory, it was part of a larger struggle over the meaning and
practice of freedom and citizenship. These two words continue to be central
to what it means to be a participating member of society. We invite you
to think about what these concepts have meant in the past and what they
mean to you today.
SECTION OF THE FRONT PAGE OF THE DC COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION ACT
VIEW ALL PAGES AT http://dc.gov/emancipationday
2 District of Columbia Emancipation Day Slavery in the District of Columbia
A New National Capital T
he area we know as the District of Columbia was selected as the site
for the capital of the United States in 1791. It was created by land
ceded to the federal government by Virginia and Maryland, two slaveholding states of the Chesapeake region. The District of Columbia,
which included Washington City, Georgetown, Washington County and
Alexandria (until 1846), became a center for slavery and the slave trade.
Slavery was a legal, economic and social institution. In legal terms, it
meant that certain individuals had the right to purchase and “own” other
human beings as property. These individuals were then able to profit
from the labor of the people they “owned” who were forced to work
without getting paid. Slavery, however, was not simply an institution that
benefited propertied individuals; it was an economic system that allowed
the United States, particularly the southern states, to develop as it did.
Slavery also hinged on the modern and pseudo-scientific concept of race,
which is based on skin color. By constructing a belief in biological differences based on color, people who were called “white” justified the oppression of people who were called “black.”
Early African‐American Population I
n 1800, African Americans were 25 percent of the District’s population of 14,093, sharing the new capital with Native American and
white people. The majority of these African-American people were enslaved. The image most of us have of slavery is large plantations or farms
in the rural South where large numbers of women, men and children
labored. In the District, as in cities across the South, black people labored and lived in a range of settings, often singly or in small numbers.
As the nation’s capital was developing, there was a great need for skilled
and unskilled laborers. African Americans helped to construct the U.S.
Capitol building, the White House and other public and private projects.
While the vast majority of those enslaved did not earn money or wages,
there were some who were permitted by their owners to earn money, and
eventually purchased their freedom. And because there were no laws in
April 16, 1862 3 Washington, DC requiring the newly
freed to leave the District upon gaining their legal freedom, the free black
population continued to grow. Other
enslaved people gained their legal freedom, or manumission, when their
owners provided for it in their wills.
Once their owners died, they were legally free.
Limits on Freedom T
Alethia Browning Tanner, who lived in Anacostia, was able to work, save money and purchase her freedom in 1810. Tanner operated a small market garden near Lafayette Square (formerly President’s Square). From her earnings selling produce, she purchased her legal freedom for $1,400 and subsequently that of many of her relatives, including John F. Cook, Sr., who founded the 15th Street Presbyterian Church (still in operation today) in 1841. Similarly, Tobias Henson purchased his freedom in 1813, and then his wife’s, their two daughters and five grandchildren’s. Within twenty years, he amassed more than twenty acres in Stantontown, near the current intersection of Stanton Road and Alabama Avenue, SE. he growing free African American
population in the capital worried
pro-slavery white people, including the
mayor, Robert Brent, and the Board of
Aldermen, the precursor to the Council of the District of Columbia.
Through the introduction of laws known as “Black Codes,” they sought
to solidify slavery as an institution and to strengthen the concept of racial
segregation in the city. They also restricted the meaning and practice of
legal freedom for free black people.
The mayor and aldermen legislated the first set of Black Codes in 1808.
These codes made it unlawful for “Negroes” or “loose, idle, disorderly
persons” to be on the streets after 10 p.m. Free black people who violated this curfew could be fined five dollars (equal to $65 in 2007). Enslaved African Americans had to rely on their owners to pay the fine. The
punishment for nonpayment of fines was whipping.
The mayor and aldermen enacted a harsher set of Black Codes in 1812.
Free black people could be fined $20 if they violated the curfew, and
jailed for six months if the fine went unpaid. Enslaved people received
the same fine but the punishment for nonpayment was 40 lashes. In
addition, free African Americans had to register with the local government and carry their certificates of freedom at all times.
In 1821, Mayor Samuel Smallwood and the Board of Aldermen imposed
even greater restrictions on free black people in the District. The new set
of Black Codes required them to appear before the mayor with documents signed by three white people vouching for their good character,
4 District of Columbia Emancipation Day proving their free status. They also had to pay a “peace bond” of $20 to a
“respected” white man as a commitment to good behavior. This code
illustrates the precarious nature of freedom for non-enslaved African
Americans, by attempting to control the movement of people of color.
Free African Americans contested the codes. William Costin, for example, refused to pay the peace bond. In court, Costin argued that the Constitution “knows no distinction of color. That all who are not slaves are
equally free…equally citizens of the
Among the last of the Black Codes in the United States.” The judge ruled that
U.S. to be lifted was Virginia’s “anti‐
while the codes were legal they could
miscegenation” law against interracial not be imposed upon free black people marriage, which was not overturned until who had been residents before the code the Loving v. Virginia case was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. was enacted. It was a limited, though
important, victory. Costin also called
into question the logic of the concept of race; his ancestors were Cherokee, European and African. For Costin, any of these could define him.
Turning Points During Slavery T
he U.S. Congress, established in 1789 and consisting solely of white
men until 1870, was a focal point for intense debate about the abolition of slavery. Beginning in the late 1820s, abolitionists organized a
coordinated campaign to petition Congress to end slavery and the slave
trade in the nation’s capital. The effort to send abolitionist petitions to
Congress gained strength in the mid-1830s when thousands of petitions
flooded the House of Representatives. In response, southern Congressmen instituted the “Gag Rule” in 1836, banning the introduction of petitions or bills pertaining to slavery.
In all parts of the country where slavery was permitted, communities of
free black people were a cause of concern to pro-slavery white people, as
demonstrated by several highly publicized incidents.
Denmark Vesey’s Plans for Charleston, S.C. I
n 1822, Denmark Vesey, a free black minister, planned an insurrection in reaction to the city of Charleston, South Carolina’s suppression of the African Church, a major community institution for African
April 16, 1862 5 Americans. The conspiracy was revealed two months before the incident
was to take place, resulting in the trial and subsequent hanging of Vesey
and three dozen co-conspirators. City leaders publicized their accounts
of the planned revolt to discourage future attempts.
The Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831 I
n 1831, Nat Turner, an enslaved African American, led a major rebellion in Southampton, Virginia. Turner’s rebellion started the night
he murdered the family that owned him, before moving on to attack
other nearby white families. As he went, he was joined by more and
more enslaved people, and by the time they approached the closest town,
Turner and his cohort had killed more than fifty white men, women and
children. The implications of this rebellion reverberated throughout the
country. White District residents became even more fearful of African
Americans questioning slavery and desiring freedom; some responded by
attacking and arresting black people throughout the District.
The Snow Riot of 1835 I
n August 1835, local white-owned newspapers reported that the District had its own “Nat Turner.” They alleged that Arthur Bowen, an
18-year old enslaved African American, attempted to murder Anna
Maria Thornton, the wealthy white widow of William Thornton, the
Architect of the Capitol. Mrs. Thornton legally owned Bowen, and he
and his mother lived in her home in the 1300 block of F Street NW.
When Arthur Bowen was arrested and jailed, a white mob of mostly Irish
mechanics gathered at the city jail, then located at Judiciary Square, and
threatened to hang Bowen.
The mechanics’ anger was also directed at white abolitionists who
worked to get Congress to end the slave trade in the District. Dr. Reuben
Crandall, a botanist and doctor with an office in Georgetown and
brother of Prudence Crandall, a vocal Connecticut abolitionist, was the
primary target. Assumed guilty by association, police searched Dr. Crandall’s office and found antislavery publications. He was arrested and
jailed on charges of incitement to rebellion.
The mob outside the jail sought hanging as a punishment for both Bowen and Crandall and hoped to inflict the punishment themselves. Prevented by the police from gaining access to Bowen and Crandall, they
6 District of Columbia Emancipation Day redirected their anger toward Mr. Beverly Snow’s popular Epicurean Eating House, located nearby at the corner of Sixth Street and Pennsylvania
Avenue NW. They ransacked the restaurant, destroying furniture and
breaking liquor bottles, forcing Snow to flee the District. After looting
Snow’s restaurant, they continued their rampage by vandalizing other
black-owned businesses and institutions, including Rev. John F. Cook,
Sr.’s church and school at the corner of 14th and H streets, NW. Fearing
that the mob would come after him, Rev. Cook fled to Pennsylvania.
The impact of the Snow Riot lasted far beyond the few days of violence.
As one of a number of clashes in the 1830s and 1840s, it was emblematic
of the continued centrality of slavery in the nation’s capital.
The Pearl Incident of 1848 O
n the evening of April 15, 1848, at least 75 enslaved adults and
children from Washington, Georgetown and Alexandria sought
freedom on the Pearl, a 64 foot cargo schooner waiting for them in the
Potomac River at a wharf in Southwest
DC. The escape was facilitated by two
white men: Daniel Drayton, who chartered the ship for $100, and Edward
Sayres, the captain of the Pearl.
After dark on that Saturday night, the
freedom seekers made their way to the
wharf in small family groups. The Pearl
set off to sail by night down the Potomac River to Alexandria, Virginia, and
subsequently to the Chesapeake Bay
where the captain planned to turn and IMAGE FROM A TRAIL MARKER AT THE
SITE OF THE PEARL INCIDENT
head toward Pennsylvania, but bad
CREATED BY CULTURALTOURISMDC.
weather slowed the voyage. The next
morning, when the 41 white families that owned the fugitives discovered
the escape, a posse was formed to capture them. Having learned about
the escape route from an informer, the posse of 30 white men traveled by
steamboat and overtook the Pearl at Point Lookout, about 100 miles
southeast of the capital, and returned all aboard to Washington.
As the news of the escape attempt spread, pro-slavery rioters attacked
April 16, 1862 7 known abolitionist businesses for
three days. Drayton and Sayres were
held in the city jail, from which a mob
attempted to remove them for hanging. Most of the escapees were jailed
before being sold to slave dealers in
New Orleans and Georgia. A few secured their freedom and became abolitionists.
Though unsuccessful, historians believe that it was the nation’s largest
single escape attempt. The Pearl incident also increased national attention
to the existence of slavery and the
slave trade in the nation’s capital.
SITE WHERE THE PEARL WAITED
7TH & WATER STREETS SW
Retrocession of Alexandria I
n 1846, Congress voted to permit the portion of the District of Columbia that was south of the Potomac River to “retrocede” or return
to Virginia, resulting in the oddly-shaped outline of the nation’s capital
we have now. Though the impetus for retrocession was not clearly related to the institution of slavery, the return of this land to Virginia’s
jurisdiction had immediate and dire consequences to African Americans
living there: the loss of access to education. Unlike DC, Virginia had
laws against educating black people, so all schools for African Americans
were closed for almost fifteen years until the Union Army occupied Alexandria during the Civil War, and reopened them.
The Compromise of 1850 A
s conflicts between pro- and anti-slavery factions continued, and the
country continued to grow, Congress decided to step in to address
the regional disputes over slavery. The “Compromise of 1850” sought to
appease both sides by ending or preventing the introduction of slavery
and the slave trade in new states while allowing slavery and the slave
trade to continue in states where already legal. The effect of the compro8 District of Columbia Emancipation Day mise in the District of Columbia was the introduction of a slave-trade act
that prevented the importation of enslaved people into the District for
resale or transportation elsewhere, but continued to allow the sale of enslaved District residents to slave holders. This was done by a slaveowning Congressman from Kentucky, in an effort to appear to make concessions to abolitionists. The public auctions of enslaved women, men
and children continued, as did slave prisons and the sight of groups of
handcuffed, or coffled, black people walking through the city on their
way to or from being sold.
The Abolition Movement in the District of Columbia B
y 1830, there were more free African Americans than enslaved people in Washington, DC. This growing population, together with
those enslaved, organized churches, private schools, benevolent societies
and businesses. Building these community institutions gave black District
residents a sense of ownership and control over parts of their lives, and
provided opportunities for organized resistance to slavery.
By 1850, free African Americans outnumbered those enslaved by almost
two to one. According to the U.S. Census, there were 8,461 free and
4,694 enslaved African Americans. The District’s role as a center of abolitionism gained momentum with the repeal of the Gag Rule in 1844, and
the passage of the Compromise of
Ann Maria Weems, a 15 year‐old enslaved 1850. Beginning in the early 1850s,
girl, was the youngest of five children. Her anti-slavery Congressmen pushed for
father, John, was legally free and her Congress to use its constitutional
mother, Arrah, was enslaved. Her parents, who moved from Rockville, Maryland to power to “exercise exclusive legislathe District, sought support from the tion” to end slavery in the District. It
community of local abolitionists to help would take another decade for that to
their daughter flee. The plan was for Ann Maria to disguise herself as a boy and happen.
Washington, DC also served as an important stop on what was popularly
called the “Underground Railroad,” a
network of black and white abolitionists who worked “underground” or
clandestinely, at great risk, to assist
enslaved people seeking freedom in
northern states and Canada.
serve as a white man’s carriage driver. The plan included cousins who whisked her out of Rockville, free black families who hid her in their homes, the white man who was paid to ride with her past city limits, as well as numerous individuals who helped get her to Philadelphia, New York and eventually to Canada. It was an elaborate plan with a number of mishaps and close calls, but Ann Maria eventually made it safely to Canada. April 16, 1862 9 The National Era Newspaper A
nti-slavery newspapers were another important aspect of the abolition movement that required commitment and fearlessness for
those involved. The National Era newspaper, for example, was a target of
a pro-slavery mob following the Pearl incident. The paper was founded in
Washington, DC by the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.
Gamaliel Bailey, a well-known white anti-slavery journalist, took over as
the principal editor in 1847. Much of Bailey’s focus was on the abolition
of the slave trade in the District. In 1851-1852, Bailey serialized Harriet
Beecher Stowe’s popular novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, making it the first
time the story was widely available to the reading public.
T
The Civil War he Civil War, also known as the “War Between the States,” was essentially a struggle over keeping the United States of America
united, and the issue that divided the states was the institution of slavery.
With the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as President, the slaveholding South became increasingly nervous that their livelihood and way of
life were threatened. By February 1861, all “deep South” states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.
None of the “border states” with slavery (Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky
and Delaware) seceded. After the first clash at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, in April 1861, most of the upper south states, including Virginia,
left the Union and joined the Confederacy. The Civil War had begun.
African‐American Refugees Arrive D
rawn by the relatively large black population in Washington, DC,
and the headquarters of Union forces, African-American refugees
began entering the District in 1861 from Maryland, Virginia and other
southern states. Although the District was mostly pro-Union, it was still a
dangerous place for enslaved blacks seeking freedom. Many “slave catchers” and “slave hunters” combed the city looking for fugitives to return
South. By 1864, when fugitive slave laws were repealed and slavery was
abolished in Maryland, Washington, DC was safe for refugees.
By the end of the Civil War, more than 25,000 African Americans had
moved to DC. Refugee camps were created to accommodate the new
residents, often near the sites of forts that are preserved throughout the
10 District of Columbia Emancipation Day District. There were camps at Duff
Green’s Row on First Street between
East Capitol and A Streets SE, at
Camp Barker at 12th Street and Vermont Avenue, NW, and at Freedmen’s Village just across the river in
Arlington. Most of the refugees in
the camps were women, children,
the infirmed and the elderly. Most
young men had either fled further
north or had enlisted as soldiers,
sailors or laborers in the war effort.
DETAIL FROM THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIL
WAR MEMORIAL - VERMONT AVE & U ST NW
African‐American Soldiers and Sailors O
n April 23, 1861, a few days after Ft. Sumter was attacked, Jacob
Dodson wrote a letter to the U.S. Secretary of War informing him
that “I have some three hundred reliable colored free citizens of this
City, who desire to enter the services for the defense of the City.” The
reply was “this Department has no intention at present to call into the
service of Government any colored soldiers.” It would be two years into
the war before the U.S. Army’s policy changed.
The U.S. Navy was more receptive to employing African Americans.
Black sailors began serving in September 1861. The Navy’s role was to
blockade southern ports, control major rivers, and repel Confederate
privateers and cruisers that attempted to prey on Union merchant ships.
Approximately 480 black men born in the District served in the Navy
during the Civil War.
The Army’s First Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, was organized and
trained in spring and summer of 1863 in WashRally Song for 1st Regiment of ington, DC. They trained at Analostan Island
Colored Volunteers (chorus) (now Roosevelt Island). There were also District
Hi rally! Ho rally! men who served in regiments raised elsewhere
To the war we’ll go in the Union. James T. Wormley, who owned
and we’ll show those traitors th
the hotel at the corner of 15 and H Streets
south the courage of their foe! th
How can we silent be in this NW, served in the Massachusetts 5 Cavalry.
Of the more than 209,000 black men who
stormy strife!
For we’ll stake for liberty
the friendly boon of life!
April 16, 1862 11 served as Civil War soldiers; 3,265 were from Washington, DC. Their
names appear on the African American Civil War Memorial at Vermont
Avenue and U Street NW. Black women served as nurses and other
ways in the war effort. Elizabeth Keckley, the formerly enslaved memoirist, organized the Contraband Relief Association to help women and
children; Sojourner Truth worked at Freedmen’s Village in Arlington.
The issue of African Americans serving in the U.S. military turned out to
be a key issue in ending slavery and eventually, ending the war.
1862: A Pivotal Year Toward Ending Slavery The DC Compensated Emancipation Act D
uring the Civil War, Charles Sumner, the senior senator from Massachusetts, and a vocal abolitionist, asked President Lincoln: “Do
you know who is at this moment the largest slaveholder in the United
States?” Sumner informed Lincoln that he was the largest slaveholder
because the President “holds all the slaves of the District of Columbia.”
Sumner was referring to the fact that the federal government was empowered in the U.S. Constitution to “exercise exclusive legislation” over the
federal district. Though this interpretation of the federal government’s
constitutional power continues to be a source of conflict, abolitionists
used it as a way to end slavery in the national capital.
In December 1861, Henry Wilson, the junior Massachusetts senator,
introduced a bill in Congress to end slavery in Washington, DC. De1862: A PIVOTAL YEAR TOWARD ENDING SLAVERY APRIL 12th: Congress passed the DC Compensated Emancipation Act 16th: President Lincoln signed the DC Compensated Emancipation Act JULY 12th: President Lincoln signed the Supplemental DC Emancipation Act 17th: Congress passed the Second Confiscation and Militia Act 19th: Slavery abolished in the territories of the United States 22nd: President Lincoln told his cabinet of his plan to proclaim Emancipation SEPTEMBER 22nd: President Lincoln issued Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation JANUARY 1, 1863 President Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation 12 District of Columbia Emancipation Day spite considerable opposition from slaveholding Congressmen, aldermen
and residents, the bill passed. The Senate approved the bill on April 3,
1862 and the House of Representatives on April 12, 1862. President Lincoln signed the legislation on April 16, 1862.
Titled “An Act for the release
of certain persons held to
service or labor in the District of Columbia,” it freed
the 3,100 women, men and
children who were still enslaved in 1862. The act also
allowed for slaveowners to be
compensated up to $300 for
each individual they had legally owned. In addition,
newly-freed African Americans could receive up to $100
if they chose to emigrate to
another country.
President Lincoln wrote: Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: The act entitled “an Act for the release of certain persons held in service or labor in the District of Columbia,” has this day been approved and signed. I have never doubted the constitutional authority of Congress to abolish slavery in this district, and I have ever desired to see the National capital freed from the institution in some satisfactory way. Hence there has never been in my mind any question upon the subject except the one of expediency, arising in view of all the circumstances. If there be matters within and about this act which might have taken a course or shape more satisfactory to my judgment, I do not attempt to specify them. I am gratified that the two principles of compensation and colonization are both recognized and practically applied in the act. Implementation A
In the matter of compensation it is provided that claims may be presented within 90 days from the passage of the act, but not thereafter, and there is no saving for minors, femes covert, insane or absent persons. I presume this is an omission by mere oversight and recommend that it be supplied by an amendatory or supplemental act. three-member Emancipation Commission was
established to determine who
could legally claim compensation and to disburse funds. The claimants had to show papers proving
that they had legally owned the formerly enslaved people, and were required to pledge loyalty to the Union. Though the majority of claimants
were white, there were African Americans who received compensation
for family members whose titles they had purchased in order to keep
them from being sold. At the end of the compensation process, the federal government had spent close to $1 million dollars to compensate individuals for their “property.”
Emancipation by Legislation and Proclamation O
n July 12, 1862, Congress passed an addendum to the April 16
act, permitting formerly enslaved people whose former owners had
not filed claims for compensation to do so. Additionally, the DC SupApril 16, 1862 13 plemental Emancipation Act permitted African Americans to testify to the veracity of others’
claims. Because the admissibility
of testimony given by African
Americans had been challenged
in the past, this was a new and
heartening development to those
who argued for equality of treatment under law.
Five days later, July 17, 1862,
Congress passed the Second Confiscation and Militia Act, which
freed enslaved people throughout
the country whose owners were
serving in the Confederate Army.
Slavery was abolished in the U.S.
territories on July 19, 1862, again
in an effort to cut off support to
the Confederate states.
In a letter to a friend in Baltimore, a Washingtonian shared his joy over the DC Emancipation Act. “This indeed has been a happy day to me sights have I witnessed that I never anticipated one of which I will relate The Chambermaid at Smith’s (my former place) …is a slave so this morning I went there to inform her of the passage of the Bill when I entered The cook her and another Slave woman who has a slave son were talking relative to the Bill expressing doubts of its passage & when I entered they perceived that something was ahead and emeadiately asked me “Whats the news?” The Districts free says I pulling out the National Republic and reading its editorial when I had finished the chambermaid had left the room for sobbing for joy. The slave woman clasped her hands and shouted, left the house saying, “let me go and tell my husband that Jesus has done all things well” While the cook who is free retired to another room to offer thanks for the blessing sent. Should I not feel glad to see so much rejoicing around me? Were I a drinker I would get on a Jolly spree today but as a Christian I can but kneel in prayer and bless God for the privilege I’ve enjoyed this day….Would to God that the Law applied also to Baltimore but a little patience and all will be well.” Ten days after signing the DC Supplemental Emancipation Act, President Lincoln told his cabinet of his intention to threaten the Confederate states with freeing the enslaved people in their states if they did not re
-join the Union. This plan was not implemented until September 22,
1862, when President Lincoln signed the Preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation, which announced his deadline of January 1, 1863.
The Emancipation Proclamation N
ine months after signing the DC Emancipation Act, and one hundred days
after issuing the Preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation, President Lincoln issued the
final Emancipation Proclamation, on January
1, 1863.
“Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander‐in‐
Chief. …as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do…declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free.” The Emancipation Proclamation was primarily of symbolic importance.
14 District of Columbia Emancipation Day No enslaved people were immediately freed by the proclamation because
it excluded slave-holding border states—Maryland, Delaware, Missouri
and Kentucky—out of fear of sending them into rebellion. Enslaved people living in states controlled by the Confederacy could only be freed if
and when the Union Army arrived and liberated them in person. Yet the
Emancipation Proclamation clarified that slavery would end in states that
did not return to the Union.
Six months after the last Confederate general surrendered his troops to
the Union Army, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed
by Congress in December 1865, finally outlawed slavery throughout the
entire United States, including those areas earlier excluded by the Emancipation Proclamation.
After Emancipation Emancipation Celebrations and Parades A
frican Americans responded immediately and enthusiastically to the
DC Emancipation Act and the Emancipation Proclamation. The
first Emancipation Parade took place on April 19, 1866, the fourth anni-
IMAGE OF THE 1866 EMANCIPATION CELEBRATION
COURTESY M OORLAND-SPINGARN RESEARCH CENTER
April 16, 1862 15 anniversary of the D.C. Emancipation Act. It was a huge, joyous event,
which brought out close to half of the city’s African American population. Thousands participated in the parade that began at Franklin
Square, wound its way throughout the city, and returned to Franklin
Square for speeches. Many thousands more lined the main thoroughfares
of the District, including Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, to watch the parade. The Washington Bee newspaper claimed that the Emancipation Parade was the “grandest event in the history of the colored race.”
On May 12, 1866, a wood engraving sketched by F. Dielman, a white
artist, was published in Harper’s Weekly, a popular white-owned magazine.
It is the only known representation of the first Emancipation Parade.
DC Emancipation parades continued from 1866 to 1901. Church celebrations, which had begun in 1862, continued after 1901. The tradition
of Emancipation commemorations was revived in 1991, in large part due
to the initiative and research of Loretta Carter Hanes, a District native.
Mrs. Hanes, an avid student of Washington, DC history, and founder of
Reading Is Fundamental in the District of Columbia, began an annual
wreath-laying ceremony in Lincoln Park (on
East Capitol Street between 11th and 13th
Streets) at the statue of Lincoln, installed in
1876, that was paid for entirely by donations from formerly enslaved people.
The parades, organized to celebrate the
abolition of slavery, were also used to make
public demands for full citizenship. African
Americans recognized that legal freedom—
through the DC Emancipation Act, Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment—did not automatically confer full
citizenship. As a result, African Americans
began a larger struggle over the meaning
and practice of freedom and citizenship in the
United States.
DETAIL FROM THE
EMANCIPATION STATUE
IN LINCOLN PARK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 16 District of Columbia Emancipation Day T
he overwhelming joy engendered by DC emancipation was expressed by poet James Madison Bell in his poem:
“EMANCIPATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA”
Unfurl your banners to the breeze!
Let Freedom’s tocsin sound amain,
Until the islands of the seas
Re-echo with the glad refrain!
Columbia’s free! Columbia’s free!
Her teeming streets, her vine-clad groves,
Are sacred now to Liberty,
And God, who every right approves.
Thank God, the Capital is free!
The slaver’s pen, the auction block,
The gory lash of cruelty,
No more this nation’s pride shall mock;
No more, within those ten miles square,
Shall men be bought and women sold;
Nor infants, sable-haired and fair,
Exchanged again for paltry gold.
To-day the Capital is free!
And free those halls where Adams stood
To plead for man’s humanity,
And for a common brotherhood;
Where Sumner stood, with massive frame,
Whose eloquent philosophy
Has clustered round his deathless name
Bright laurels for eternity.
Where Wilson, Lovejoy, Wade, and Hale,
And other lights of equal power,
Have stood, like warriors clad in mail,
Before the giant of the hour,—
Co-workers in a common cause,
Laboring for their country’s weal,
By just enactments, righteous laws,
And burning, eloquent appeal.
To them we owe and gladly bring
The grateful tribute of our hearts;
And while we live to must and sing,
These in our songs shall claim their parts.
To-day Columbia’s air doth seem
Much purer than in day’s agone;
And now her mighty heart, I deem,
Hath lighter grown by marching on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bibliography Abolition in the District of Columbia. American Memory, Library of Congress, http://
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cwss. Accessed March 3, 2009. April 16, 1862 17 DC Emancipation and Supplemental Acts of 1862. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/
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part3/3p2976.html Accessed February 28, 2009. Clark‐Lewis, Elizabeth, ed. First Freed: Washington, D.C., in the Emancipation Era Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 2002. Corrigan, Mary Beth. “Imaginary Cruelties?: A History of the Slave Trade in Washing‐
ton, D.C.,” Washington History Fall/Winter 2001‐2002, 13/2, pp. 4‐27. Freeman, Elsie, Wynell Burroughs Schamel, and Jean West. "The Fight for Equal Rights: A Recruiting Poster for Black Soldiers in the Civil War." Social Education 56, 2 (February 1992): 118‐120. [Revised and updated in 1999 by Budge Weidman.] Gamaliel Bailey. In Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/
EBchecked/topic/49252/Gamaliel‐Bailey. Accessed March 4, 2009. Gibbs, C.R., Black, Copper & Bright: The District of Columbia’s Black War Regiment Silver Spring: Three Dimensional Publishing, 2002. McLaughlin Green, Constance. The Secret City: A History of Race Relations in the Na‐
tion’s Capital, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965. Harrold, Stanley. Subversives: Antislavery Community In Washington, D.C., 1828‐1865 Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003. John H. Holman Papers, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, Columbia‐University of Missouri. Lesko, Kathleen M., Babb, Valerie, and Gibbs, Carroll R.. Black Georgetown Remem‐
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ton, DC: Historic Preservation Office and Cultural Tourism DC, 2003. Pacheco, Josephine F. The Pearl A Failed Slave Escape on the Potomac, Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005. 18 District of Columbia Emancipation Day Paynter, John H. Fugitives of the Pearl, Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, Inc., 1930. Researching Slavery and Freedom in the National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/
midatlantic/public/slavery‐research.pdf . Accessed February 28, 2009. Richards, Mark David. “The Debates Over Retrocession, 1801‐2004,” Washington His‐
tory Spring/Summer 2004, pp.54‐82. Ricks, Mary Kay. Escape on the Pearl: The Heroic Bid for Freedom on the Underground Railroad. New York: Harper Collins, 2007. Russell, Hilary. “Final Research Report: The Operation of the Underground Railroad in Washington, D.C., 1800‐1860,” Washington, DC: Historical Society of Washington, DC and the National Park Service, July 2001. Whyte, James H. The Uncivil War: Washington During the Reconstruction, 1865‐1878. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1958. Woods Brown, Letitia. Free Negroes in the District of Columbia 1790‐1846, New York: Oxford University Press, 1972. Front Cover: Section of the Final Report to the Secretary of the Treasury by the DC Emancipation Compensation Commission. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ April 16, 1862 19 T he Humanities Council of Washington, DC is delighted to join with the Mayor and the District of Columbia Emancipation Commemo‐
ration Commission in celebrating Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia. We hope that this booklet will inspire you to learn more about the documents that proclaim our freedom, declare our rights and enunciate our responsibilities. For more information, log on to www.wdchumanities.org and www.neh.gov. Joy Ford Austin, Executive Director ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY: MARYA ANNETTE MCQUIRTER EDITED BY: STEPHANIE D. SCOTT, PH.D., SECRETARY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Special thanks to: Clarence Davis, former Administrator, DC Office of Public Records ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
ADRIAN M. FENTY, MAYOR
This booklet was produced by the Office of the Secretary of the District of Columbia in partnership with the Humanities Council of Washington, DC. It is available for free download at http://dc.gov/emancipationday. To request printed copies, please write to [email protected] or call 202‐727‐6306. © 2009 20 District of Columbia Emancipation Day