On this date in 1862, the nation's capital ended slavery. President Lincoln signed an act abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, an essential step in the long road toward complete emancipation and enfranchisement for Africans in the United States of America.
Before 1850, slave pens, slave jails, and auction blocks were standard 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.
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
