Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase submitted a report to Congress showing federal payments to District of Columbia claimants in compensation for emancipated slaves. Clark Mills, number 741, is among the claimants listed on these pages. Amounts paid were lower than petitioners’ claims. Mills received $350.40 for Philip Reid (misspelled “Reed”); he had requested $1,500.
General Collections, Library of Congress
Emancipation in the District of Columbia, 38th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, 1864
The D.C. Emancipation Act
Although the Compromise of 1850 prohibited the slave trade in Washington, D.C., slavery in the nation’s capital remained legal until Congress passed the District of Columbia Emancipation Act in 1862. The act abolished all slavery in the District, provided financial compensation to former slave owners, offered emancipated individuals opportunities to move to colonies abroad, and protected freedmen from future enslavement. Congress finally ended all slavery in the United States with passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865.
Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase submitted a report to Congress showing federal payments to District of Columbia claimants in compensation for emancipated slaves. Clark Mills, number 741, is among the claimants listed on these pages. Amounts paid were lower than petitioners’ claims. Mills received $350.40 for Philip Reid (misspelled “Reed”); he had requested $1,500.
General Collections, Library of Congress
