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334:, the bill passed the Senate on April 3 by a vote of 29 in favor and 14 opposed. It passed the House of Representatives on April 11. Lincoln had wanted the bill to include a provision to make emancipation effective only after a favorable vote from the citizens of the District of Columbia. He also wanted the bill to delay implementation until a certain amount of time after enactment. Congress included neither provision in the bill. Lincoln signed the bill on April 16, 1862, amid ongoing Congressional debate over an emancipation plan for the
338:. Following the bill's passage, Lincoln proposed several changes to the act, which Congress approved. The commissioners appointed to implement the bill later made a report to Congress listing the names of slaveholders who applied for compensation, the names of people emancipated, and the amounts paid. According to one account, enslavers sold nearly 2000 people from the District in the spring of 1862 in hopes of evading emancipation and getting higher prices from Confederates than the government was offering.
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393:"When Congress passed the DC Emancipation Act in April 1862, giving compensation to 'loyal' owners, Coakley successfully petitioned for his wife and children, since he had purchased their freedom in earlier years. He was one of only a handful of black Washingtonians to claim this. The federal government paid him $ 1489.20 for eight people he 'owned'; he had claimed their value at $ 3,300."
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345:. The act immediately emancipated enslaved people in Washington, D.C., and set aside $ 1 million to compensate slaveholders loyal to the U.S. government. The law allocated an additional $ 100,000 to pay each formerly enslaved person $ 100 if they chose to leave the United States for places such as
377:
Although the U.S. government never expanded the compensated emancipation model beyond the
District of Columbia, the act, along with the prohibition of slavery in the federal territories a few months later, foreshadowed the later demise of slavery in the United States. The act was the only compensated
365:
to distribute the allotted funding. To receive compensation, former slave owners were required to provide written evidence of their ownership and state their loyalty to the Union. Most of the petitioners were white, but some blacks filed for compensation, having once bought their family members away
475:
Following
Lincoln's concerns over the version of the bill that he signed, Congress approved a supplement to the original Compensated Emancipation Act. The amendment passed on July 12, 1862, allowing formerly enslaved people to petition for compensation if their former owners had not done so. Under
304:
Emancipation in the
District of Columbia became possible in 1861 after the departure of the senators and representatives from the seceding states who had blocked the ending of slavery in the district, not wanting emancipation to be law anywhere. In December 1861, a bill was introduced in
381:
The
District of Columbia has celebrated April 16 as Emancipation Day since 1866, holding an annual parade to commemorate the signing of the act until 1901, when a lack of financial and organizational support forced the tradition to stop; it restarted in 2002. In 2000, the
300:
outlawed the sale and purchase of enslaved people in the
District of Columbia. However, the ownership of enslaved people in the capital was not affected, and District of Columbia residents could still buy and sell enslaved people in neighboring Virginia and Maryland.
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the supplemental act, claims made by blacks and whites were weighted equally, whereas previously, the testimonies of blacks—enslaved or free—were discarded if challenged by a white person.
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from other owners. In the end, almost all of the $ 1 million appropriated in the act was spent. As a result of the act's passage, 3,185 people were freed from slavery. However,
296:
of the later 1830s. In 1849, when he was a representative, Lincoln introduced a plan to eliminate slavery in
Washington, D.C., by compensated emancipation. The bill failed. The
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proposed making the day a public holiday. The
District of Columbia first celebrated Emancipation Day as an official city holiday in 2005.
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made April 16 a private holiday (i.e. one on which city employees are not given a free day off) and on July 9, 2004, council member
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An Act
Supplementary to the Act for the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia
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763:"Emancipation in the District of Columbia," House Executive Document 42, 38th Congress, 1st session; online at:
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https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.31158001111896?urlappend=%3Bseq=781%3Bownerid=13510798902483858-785
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The passage of the
Compensated Emancipation Act came nearly nine months before the signing of the
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An Act for the
Release of certain Persons held to Service or Labor in the District of Columbia
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261:, while providing slave owners who remained loyal to the United States in the then-ongoing
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185:
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The Rise of the Federal Colossus: The Growth of Federal Power from Lincoln to F.D.R.
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134:
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1204:
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1303:
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1308:
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Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia
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A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House
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An Act for the Release of certain Persons held to Service or Labor in the
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111:
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346:
319:, a former Democratic state senator from Ohio who was serving as
717:"Mr. Lincoln's Views on Slavery—His Course Towards the South"
276:
on April 16, 1862. April 16 is now celebrated in the city as
1170:
McQuirter, Marya Annette (2009). Scott, Stephanie D (ed.).
624:"The true author of D.C.'s Emancipation Act is uncovered"
323:'s top legal advisor (Judge Advocate), and sponsored by
910:"Emancipation in the Federal Territories, June 19, 1862"
779:
An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South
1123:
African-American Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations
1280:
696:"Emancipation in the District—Mr. Lincoln's Opinions"
269:. Although not written by him, the act was signed by
195:
117:
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88:
83:
65:
54:
46:
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370:still applied to people who had fled slavery from
309:to abolish slavery in Washington, D.C. Written by
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251:District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act
33:District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act
378:emancipation plan enacted in the United States.
892:
890:
361:The emancipation plan relied on a three-person
1367:History of slavery in the District of Columbia
1037:. National Archives and Records Administration
937:"D.C. Statehood & Emancipation Day Linked"
517:, National Archives. Inside the vaults, U.S.
374:to Washington, D.C. until their 1864 repeal.
353:, which accepted Black American immigration.
8:
838:National Archives and Records Administration
153:Senate Committee on the District of Columbia
32:
1357:African Americans in the American Civil War
830:"The District of Columbia Emancipation Act"
781:. Oxford University Press. pp. 73–74.
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27:1862 U.S. federal law ending slavery in DC
1362:United States federal slavery legislation
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1008:, Rowman & Littlefield, 2022, p. 106.
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735:"Thirty-Seventh Congress—First Session"
661:"Abolition in the District of Columbia"
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1173:Ending Slavery in the Nation's Capital
1079:The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
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573:
556:
31:
1181:Secretary of the District of Columbia
7:
1206:Remembering Fairfax County, Virginia
964:Aarons, Dakarai I. (July 10, 2004).
1031:"Supplemental Act of July 12, 1862"
992:
922:
384:Council of the District of Columbia
290:slavery in the District of Columbia
259:slavery in the District of Columbia
1153:Southern Illinois University Press
1107:The Civil War and the Constitution
787:10.1093/oso/9780197578261.001.0001
211:Tooltip Public Law (United States)
25:
1148:Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas
935:Gillespie, Lisa (April 5, 2011).
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966:"Emancipation Day May Go Public"
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133:in the Senate as S. 108 by
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723:. November 5, 1860. p. 4.
643:"Emancipation in the District"
1:
1352:Presidency of Abraham Lincoln
1342:American Civil War documents
777:Colby, Robert K. D. (2024).
741:. April 17, 1862. p. 4.
702:. April 15, 1862. p. 4.
667:. April 12, 1862. p. 4.
533:Slavery in the United States
255:Compensated Emancipation Act
249:, known colloquially as the
18:Compensated Emancipation Act
649:. April 4, 1862. p. 4.
241:, Sess. 2, ch. 54, 12
60:37th United States Congress
1383:
1263:Greenwood Publishing Group
292:date back at least to the
1256:Zavodnyik, Peter (2011).
343:Emancipation Proclamation
267:petition for compensation
200:
126:
37:
1347:Human rights legislation
1084:Rutgers University Press
945:. Georgetown Media Group
471:Supplemental legislation
172:on April 11, 1862 (
1112:Charles Scribner's Sons
363:Emancipation Commission
288:Proposals to eliminate
257:, was a law that ended
160:on April 3, 1862 (
149:Committee consideration
71:; 162 years ago
145:) on December 16, 1861
1203:Reiner, Karl (2006).
1119:Gay, Kathlyn (2007).
514:D.C. Emancipation Act
1337:1862 in American law
1229:Rodriguez, Junius P.
1004:White, Jonathan W.,
587:"Compromise of 1850"
234:District of Columbia
971:The Washington Post
629:The Washington Post
368:fugitive slave laws
317:Thomas Marshall Key
120:Legislative history
69:April 16, 1862
34:
1035:Featured Documents
834:Featured Documents
721:The New York Times
700:The New York Times
665:The New York Times
647:The New York Times
298:Compromise of 1850
1272:978-0-313-39293-1
1248:978-1-85109-544-5
1220:978-1-59629-096-9
1211:The History Press
1190:on March 20, 2012
1162:978-0-8093-2861-1
1134:978-0-7808-0779-2
739:The Baltimore Sun
632:(April 14, 2014).
519:National Archives
229:
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188:on April 16, 1862
158:Passed the Senate
101:Statutes at Large
16:(Redirected from
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1183:. Archived from
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1143:Guelzo, Allen C.
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1127:. Omnigraphics.
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1102:Burgess, John W.
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278:Emancipation Day
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557:Guelzo 2009
1331:Categories
813:1412042395
805:2023053721
539:References
253:or simply
239:37th Cong.
218:, 12
131:Introduced
89:Public law
76:1862-04-16
47:Long title
544:Citations
294:gag rules
263:Civil War
84:Citations
66:Effective
1239:ABC-CLIO
1145:(2009).
1104:(1901).
993:Gay 2007
923:Gay 2007
527:See also
372:Maryland
307:Congress
106:12
1297:History
1283:Portals
1066:Sources
1041:July 8,
978:July 8,
949:July 8,
843:July 5,
591:HISTORY
357:Outcome
351:Liberia
325:Senator
314:Colonel
311:US Army
284:History
207:Pub. L.
151:by the
141:‑
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1188:(PDF)
1177:(PDF)
506:Video
347:Haiti
243:Stat.
220:Stat.
175:92–39
163:29–14
108:Stat.
93:37–50
1267:ISBN
1243:ISBN
1215:ISBN
1196:2019
1157:ISBN
1129:ISBN
1088:ISBN
1043:2011
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951:2011
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