Saturday, February 22 – A Great Dividing Line: Slavery and Freedom in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War
Rachael Nicholas, Gettysburg National Military Park
Freedom began to ring in Washington, D.C. before the end of the war. In 1861 and early 1862, enslaved people from Virginia and Maryland demanded freedom with their feet. They chose Washington as their refuge because it housed Union soldiers and free African Americans sympathetic to their cause. There was just one problem: the Union capital was also a slaveholding region. What followed was a prolonged conflict between enslaved people, soldiers, Congressmen, and enslavers that propelled Washington—and soon the entire nation—toward emancipation.