■ Jk - • • - « V S^'.X .cO\'. 4* -•'• 0* .•' "^^^^'j^ V^ ♦iii'. %. aCI* .!••- <>■ V^ ..ill,'. » '5^- *.'o'« c°/ c^ ♦ ^^^ - -o A V ^ ' • • • 1^ • Vc*:: t V o I* A ,♦ o ^'i^^ -P. V >:-:^^:^x "V *•» A^ 20th Congress, [Doc. No. 215.] Ho. of Rets. \st Session. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. m^m^mi^^m INHABITANTS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUiMBIA. PKAYIWO FOR THE GRADUAL ABOLITIOJ^r OF SLAVFAiV DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Marcu 24, 1828. Referred to Uie Committee for the District of ColumbiR. WASHINGTON : rniNTED Dt GALES & SEATOS. 1828. izmBt Mz LDoc. No. 215.J MEMORIAL. To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled : We, the undersigned, citizens of the counties of Washington and Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, beg leave to call the atten- tion of your honorable body to an evil of serious magnitude, which greatly impairs ti»c prosperity and happiness of this District, and casts the reproach of inconsistency upon the free institutions esta- blislied among us. While the laws of the United States denounce the foreign slave trade as piracy, and punish witli death those who are found engaged in its perpetration, there exists in tiiis District, the Seat of the Na- tional Government, a domestic slave trade, scarcely less disgraceful in its character, and even more demoralizing in its influence. For this is not, like the former, carried on against a barbarous nation ; its victims are reared uj) among the People of this country ; educated iji the precepts of the same religion ; and imbued with similar domestic attachments. These people are, without their consent, torn from their homes ; husband and wife are frequently separated, and s« Id into distant jmrts; children are taken from their parents witliout regard to the tics of nature; and tlie most endearing bonds of affection are broken forever. Nor is tins tratlic confined to those who are legally slaves for life. Some who are entitled to freedom, and many who have a limited time to serve, are sold into unconditional slavery, and, owing to the de- fectiveness of our laws, they are generally carried out of tlie District before the necessary steps can be taken for their release. We behold these scenes contiiuially taking place among us, and la- ment our inability to prevent them. The People of this District have, within themselves, no means of legislative redress, and we, therefore, appeal to your honorable body, as the only one invested by the Ameri- can Constitution with tlie power to relieve us. Nor is it only from the rapacity of slave traders that the colored race in this District are doomed to suffer. Even the laws which go- vern us, sanction and direct, in certain cases, a ])rocedure that we be- lieve is unparalleled in glaring injustice by any thing at present known among the Governments of Cliristenilom. An instance of the opera- tion of these laws, which occurred duiing tlie last Summer, we will briefly relate. 4 [Doc. No. iil5.] A colored man, v. no stated that he was entitled to freedom, was taken up as a iiiaway slave, and lodged in the jail of AVashington City He was advertised, but no one appearing to claim him, he was, according to law, put up at public auction, for the payment of his jail fees, and sold as a slave for life ! He was purchased by a slave trader, who was not required to give security for his remaining in the Dis- trict, and he was, soon after, shipped at Alexandria for one of the Snutiiern States. An attempt w as made by some benevolent individu- als to have tlie sale postponed until his claim to freedom could be in- vestigated, but their efforts were unavailing ; and thus was a human being sold into perpetual bondage, at the capital of the freest Govern- ment on earth, without even a pretence of trial, or an allegation of crime. We blush for our country while we relate this disgraceful transac- tion, and we would fain conceal it from the world, did not its very enorniity inspire us w ith the hope that it will rouse the philanthropist and the patriot to exertion. We have no hesitation in believing your honorable body never intended that this odious law should be enforced ; it was adopted with the old code of Mai-yland, from which, we believe, it has been expunged since this Distjict was ceded to the General Go- vermnent. The fact of its having been so recently executed, shows the neces- sity of this subject being investigated by a power which we confident- ly hope will be ready to correct it. We are aware of the dilliculties that would attend any attempt to iH'lieve us from these grievances by a sudden emancipation of the slaves in this District, and we would, therefore, be far from recommending so rash a measure. But the course puisued by many of the States of this Confederacy, that have happily succeeded in relieving tliem- selves from a similar burden, together with the bright example which has been set us by the Soutii American Rcj)ublics, proves, most con- clusively, that a course of gradual emancipation, to commence at some fixed period, and to lake effect only upon those who may there- after be born or remoAed into tiie Distiict, might be pursued, with- out detriment to the present proprietors, and would greatly redound to the prosperity and honor of our country. The existence among us of a distinct class of people, who, by their condition as slaves, are deprived of almost every incentive to virtue and industry, and shut out from many of the sources of light and know- ledge, has an evident tendency to coirupt the morals of the people, and to damp the spirit ol enterj)rise, by accustoming the rising gene- ration to look with contempt nj)on honest labor, and to depend, for support, too much ujjon the labor of others. It prevents a useful and industrious class of people from settling among us, by rendering the means of subsistence more j)i-ccai'ious to the laboring class of whites. It diminishes the resources of the community, by throwing the earn- ings of the poor into the cofiers of the rich ,• thus rendering the for- mer dependent, servile, and improvident, while the latter are tempted to become, in the same proj)ortion, luxurious and prodigal. [Doc. No. 215.1 That these dLsastrous results flow from the existence of slavery among us, is suffic.en ly conspicuous, when we contrast the lanLu^sh ing condition ot this D.stnct and the surrounding country, whh the prosperity of those parts of the Union which are l?ss favored h no tt Ltim™ ' ' ' ^'''^' ^ ^''' ^"^ industriouTpopu: We would, therefore, respectfully pray that these grievances mav claim the attention ot your honorable body, and that a law of Con gress may be enacted, declaring that all children of slaves, born in the District of Columbia, after tin- Im.rth day of Julv, eighteen hun dred and twenty-eight, shall be free at the age of twenty 5five years I and that those laws whi, I. authorize the selling of supposed runaways lor tlieir prison Ices or maintenance, may be repealed. And, also, that laws may be enacted' to prevent .laves from beine: removed into this District, ..r bro..gl.t in for sale, hire, or transporta- tion ; without, however, preventing Members «d Congress, resident .rangers, or travellers, Irom bringing and taking away with them llicir domestic sei-vants. ^ ^ §4 I