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Wed, 04.16.1862

Slavery is Abolished in Washington D.C.

On this date in 1862, the nation's capital ended slavery. President Lincoln signed an act abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, an important step in the long road toward full emancipation and enfranchisement for Africans in the United States of America.

Before 1850, slave pens, slave jails, and auction blocks were common in the District of Columbia, a center for the domestic slave trade. This included compensation to slave owners for their lost “property” totaling $993,407 dollars.

Reference:

Archives.gov

Emancipation.DC.gov

The African American Atlas
Black History & Culture an Illustrated Reference
by Molefi K. Asanta and Mark T. Mattson
Macmillan USA, Simon & Schuster, New York
ISBN 0-02-864984-2

New Poem Each Day

Poetry Corner

Never love with all your heart, it only ends in aching; And bit by bit to the smallest part That organ will be breaking. Never love with all... SONG IN SPITE OF MYSELF by Countee Cullen.
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