Compensated Emancipation Act
April 16 has special meaning for
the District of Columbia. On that day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed
the Compensated Emancipation Act, For the release of certain persons held to
service or labor in the District of Columbia. The Act freed about 3,100 enslaved
persons in DC nine months before President Lincoln issued his famous
Emancipation Proclamation telegraphing the eventual end of slavery to the rest
of the nation. The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act represents
the only example of compensation by the federal government to free enslaved
persons.
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