The document is subtitled, “Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, in answer to a resolution of the House Representatives, of the 11th of January, transmitting the report and tabular statements of the commissioners appointed in relation to emancipated slaves in the District of Columbia.” The document Includes a detailed accounting of the process of determining the outcome of petitions as well as an indexed list of petitions filed (showing names of claimants and enslaved).
The slave trade was outlawed in Washington, DC through the Compromise of 1850. However, enslaved people were not freed at that point. On April 16, 1862 President Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act (formally, An Act for the Release of certain Persons held to Service or Labor within the District of Columbia, 37th Cong., Sess. 2, ch. 54, 12 Stat. 376), which immediately freed enslaved people in the District of Columbia. The act also allowed enslavers to petition the government to be paid for the release of enslaved people as well as now-freed people to petition for funds if they decided to emigrate (leave the United States).
This document from 1864 lists the names of the enslavers, the people for whom they were petitioning to be paid, and the amount a slave auctioneer from Baltimore had decreed that they were worth. Through the Act, more than 3,100 enslaved people were freed; they are known as the First Freed.
While public celebrations were held by African Americans in Washington, DC until 1901, in years afterwards April 16 was not publicly acknowledged as a day of commemoration until a Washingtonian named Loretta Carter Hanes, in researching the Emancipation Proclamation in the 1990s, came across reference to the Compensated Emancipation Act. Hanes started a grassroots effort to bring attention to the Act and to have the public as well as school children learn more about the unique path to freedom for enslaved Washingtonians. She advocated for 14 years for Emancipation Day to be a legal holiday.
Thanks to her tireless efforts, as of April 16, 2005 Emancipation Day has been celebrated as a legal public holiday in—and only in—Washington, DC. Loretta Carter Hanes’s papers reflecting this effort are among those held by the DC History Center.
DCPS Cornerstones Curricular Connections
Social Studies
Grade 12 DC History and Government - Compensated Emancipation
English Language Arts
Grade 5 ELA - Become a Museum Curator
Grade 8 ELA - Unheard Voices
DCPS Standards
Social Studies
12.DC.7: Students describe the effect the Civil War had on life in Washington, DC, and they explain the effects of Compensated Emancipation and the Emancipation Proclamation on the city.
English Language Arts
W.8.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
RI.5.7: Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.
Common Core Standards
Literacy in History/Social Studies
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
"Loretta Carter Hanes," by Katrina Ingraham
DC History Center blog post, 2021
Washington History is the only scholarly publication devoted exclusively to the history of our nation’s capital. First published in 1989, the magazine replaced the Records of the Columbia Historical Society (1897-1989). Washington History is filled with scholarly articles edited for the general reader. It is written and edited by distinguished historians and journalists, offering a rich array of images as well as reviews and short features. The following articles support study of the issue of Compensated Emancipation.
"Loretta Carter Hanes, 1926–2016," by George Derek Musgrove
Washington History Vol. 29, no. 1, 2017.
The DC History Center's Loretta Carter Hanes collection comprises Personal and Family History, 1749-2004; District of Columbia Reading is Fundamental records; Emancipation Day records, relating both to the establishment and celebration of Emancipation Day; and Loretta's extensive collection of publications on topics such as general Black History, D.C. churches, and D.C. public schools.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 1991 Flyer. MS 0766, box 17, folder 143.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 1992 flyer. MS 0766, box 17, folder 145.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 1992 flyer. MS 0766, box 17, folder 145.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 1992 permit application for event at Freedom Plaza. MS 0766, box 17, folder 145.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 1992 permit application for event at Freedom Plaza. MS 0766, box 17, folder 145.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 1992 program. MS 0766, box 17, folder 145.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 1992 program. MS 0766, box 17, folder 145.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 1992 program. MS 0766, box 17, folder 145.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 2000 program. MS 0766, box 17, folder 156.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 2000 program. MS 0766, box 17, folder 156.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 2000 program. MS 0766, box 17, folder 156.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 2000 program. MS 0766, box 17, folder 156.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 2000 program. MS 0766, box 17, folder 156.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 2005 program. MS 0766, box 18, folder 161.
Commemorating Compensated Emancipation, from the Loretta Carter Hanes collection. 2005 program. MS 0766, box 18, folder 161.
This online exhibit from the National Archives offers a contextual explanation, scans of the original 1862 An Act for the Release of certain Persons held to Service or Labor in the District of Columbia, and a transcription of the document.
Directed by Susan C. Lawrence, Elizabeth Lorang, Kenneth M. Price, and Kenneth J. Winkle, and published by the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This extensive site offers a historical context and an alphabetical list of petitions.