you're watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span 3. to join the conversation like us on facebook at c-spanhistory. up next a panel discussion on washington dc during the civil war era tamika nunley talks about the lives of african-american women living in the city while carol gibbs focuses on the underground railroad. this is hosted by the abraham lincoln institute in ford's theater society, which also provided the video. in an hour 20 minutes first lady scholars reconsider the lives and legacies of sarah polk, mary lincoln and lady bird johnson. they look at how they were viewed in their own times and how history remembers them. and then in about two hours 30 minutes, we'll hear why theodore roosevelt is considered a modern president. our first speaker is tamika nunley dr. nunley is currently an associate professor of

american history at oberlin college and conservatory in ohio. although she will soon be joining the faculty in the history department of cornell university. at oberlin she created the history design lab which allows students to develop scholarly projects that involve methodological approaches such as digital humanities public history creative nonfiction and curatorial practices. her research and teaching interests includes slavery gender 19th century legal history digital history and the american civil war. her recent book at the threshold of liberty women slavery and shifting identities in washington dc examines african-american women strategies of self-definition in the context of slavery fugitivity courts schools streets, and the meant during the civil war era she is currently completing a second book the demands of justice enslaved women capital crime and

clemency an early, virginia 1705 to 1865 to be published by the university of north carolina press. speaking today on at the threshold of liberty black women in wartime, washington we welcome to mika nunley to the program. thank you, michelle. and thank you to the abraham lincoln institute for having me today. i'll go ahead and begin throughout the american civil war african-american women and girls tested the scope of emancipation policies leverage the conditions of war and redefined the meaning of liberty in the nation's capital. legal emancipation began first in washington dc at the beginning of the war in 1862 and set off a series of legislative aftershocks that would gradually break down the stronghold of chattel slavery. the story of black women and girls liberty claims. however, began well before the outbreak of war. this evening. we'll begin with a classroom crowded with black girls anxious to learn about politics.

we will then weave into the alleyways of the district brothels where black women sold sex and leisure and then explore the journey of enslaved women who initiated a social contract with the federal government that would forever transform their relationship to the union. these women and girls were driven by the ideals of their time and expressed their desires to govern their own lives without the oversight force in violence administered by others free black women and girls faced limited access to economic and social mobility, but in education opened up possibilities for vocation and teaching and participation in social reform. in washington schools where the space is in which black girls explored their own ideas opinions and values not only about themselves, but the worlds in which they lived in their learning. they were steeped in literature science, theology reform and the heated political debates of the 1850s immortula minor school for colored girls one student. marietta hill was particularly engrossed in the the political affairs of union.

in 1854 congress passed the kansas-nebraska act which allowed those who settled in the territory to decide whether or not to permit slavery there. girls like marietta hill remained a tune to the latest political debates about slavery understanding that the fate of the institution shaped the contours of their own experiences in washington. he'll share that quote. sometimes the dark cloud seems to overshadow me and sense. the nebraska bill has passed the cloud appears thicker and darker and i say will slavery forever exist and quote. slavery seemed to meet no end as congress went back and forth with one compromise after the next as long as slavery existed and african-american's lacked equal rights to citizenship their lives remained circumscribed by severe legal and social parameters. that her resolve remained steadfast as she declared quote it shall sees it shall and must be abolished. i think there will be bloodshed before all can be free and the question is are we willing to give up our lives for freedom

will we die for our people? we may say yes and quote. marietta's assessment of the political climate was eerily prophetic bloodshed not just in kansas, but on harpers ferry and eventually fort sumter would usher the union into war in the meantime minor provided an intellectual environment that made space for the girls to share their thoughts and frustrations as well as their candid opinions about the national state of affairs. they offered critiques that range from political events to everyday insults. they experienced in washington. minor hope to provide the kind of education that positioned the girls to articulate claims to equality in the capital. making an education accessible to black girls stirred social and political anxieties among white locals with the future of the country concerned with the future of the country regarding the school for black girls the mayor of washington pleaded that quote. we cannot tolerate an influence in our midst which will not only constantly disturb the repose and prosperity of our own

community and of the country, but may even read asunder the union itself and quote. he appealed to the local government to wield their influence to undermine the work of minor school linux employed that quote such a protest it is the duty of our corporate authorities to make its beneficient effect may be to persuade the supporters of this scheme to abandon its further prosecution and quote. linux claimed that minor and her students left white residents. no choice warning that quote. the responsibility will be with those who by their own want and acts of aggression make resistance and necessity and submission and impossibility and quote. thus the mayor of washington validated the violent responses of white moths that the girls confronted on a daily basis. minor school inspired violent retaliatory responses that involved racist and sexist epithets aimed at the girls one white pedestrian balked at a group of the students and

referred to them as quote unquote impudent hussies and demanded that the landlady turn out or be mocked and the use of the term hussies invoked sexualized imagery of seductresses in 19th century cocatry as they there as though they're very presence invited such insults. the man projected a sexualized and wayward representation of them in the broader public to justify their removal. students responses to local harassment do not appear in the existing record, but perhaps their thoughts remained in the purview of their private lives indeed historian, darlene clark hein explained the ways that 19th century black women embraced a culture of dissemblance where they project protected their inner lives and reactions to sexualized insults. these girls most likely deployed a number of strategies of survival many exhibited by african-american women within their respective communities. sources allow us to see that students took seriously the work of learning and regarded such as an indictment of the society

that deprived them of the basic privileges afforded their white counterparts. when lectured by the white wife of a clergyman on the importance of being educated according to one's social status one student responded quote. i would rather be learned than be contented and be ignorant. i will be learned. i must be learned. i would not ask this as colored people should not enjoy every right as white people and quote. lizzie's commitment to education coalesced with her claims to citizenship. this connection between learning enlightenment and rights underlines the pedagogical project of the minor school minor. hope to provide the kind of education that positioned to the girls to articulate claims to equality in the capital. in a context where few girls exercise the privilege of attending private school and most black girls were expected to serve at the pleasure of white families the educational achievements of black girls challenged the racial and gender hierarchies of the district. once they graduated they made tremendous sacrifices to form their own classrooms in 1857 and

e, washington a graduate of minor school opened a school nearby sources described washington as a woman of refinement with an excellent aptitude for teaching she gained notoriety for the way. she operated her school quote with a system and superior judgment giving universal satisfaction the number of her pupils being only limited by the size of her room and quote. the room located in her mother's home speaks to the resourcefulness of black women teachers who did not have access to the philanthropy connections that minor employed. washington's mother was a washer woman who made limited income in a labor economy that really gated black women to the bottom the wage earning spectrum. sources offer that her mother quote a widow woman is a laundress and by her own labor has given her children good advantages though. she had no such advantages herself and quote. the growth of the free african-american population meant that black women and girls increasingly contended with the limitations of liberty in the

nation's capital indeed. they navigated social and economic challenges in different ways. minors girls were afforded opportunities to attend school while some girls and women earned a living in the local entrepreneurial sex and leisure economies constrained and limited by economic opportunities black women and girls labored in enterprising and industrious ways particularly at the outbreak of war. during the civil war prostitution positioned black women and girls to begin to pay for basic living expenses in a city overcrowded with soldiers and refugees the degree to which black girls made the choice to enter into sex commerce was largely shaped by factors involving gender and racial inequality that limited their job prospects. thus sex work appears as either a short-term strategy or a long-term approach to economic mobility. african-american girls appeared in the news as the prey of older black and white women working in sex and leisure one such case involved a 16 year old girl from

elmira new york who he looked with a soldier? her mother learned that her daughter lived in washington. so she sent an inquiry along with the likeness to the superintendent of the police department and the detectives immediately recognized her as the young girl they had seen at 13th street between c and d. they searched for the girl and learned that she saw treatment from a local hospital after searching different brothels. the detectives proceeded to a house kept by julia fleet who lived on 3rd street between maryland avenue and b street south detectives found the girl emaciated and seated near a window as they entered the house. they found civilian men and women and soldiers playing cards upon their knees as they had neither a table nor spare stool. in addition to the people playing cards the detectives noticed that a number of ailing constitutes relying around officers returned the girl to her mother and reported that quote the distress of the mother when the wasted figure of her once beautiful daughter was brought into her presence was heartbranding even to those accustomed to scenes of distress and quote.

in the news account the girl appeared as a fallen soul who exhibited much sorrow and shame these reports served as depictions of the dangers of ice and immorality that appeared in the city, but the story under the surface appears much more complicated. the realities of wartime poverty and the way that black women in particular struggle to survive offer insights into how the girl arrived at fleets third street establishment. the ailing prostitutes found at fleet's home a firm another detail of her life locals described fleet as quote a sort of doctors for afflicted females her class and quote. the girl conceivably worked for fleet, but there's a possibility she sought fleet for medical care as well when the detectives initially began their search for her they learned that she went to a local hospital in search of treatment. locals contracted diseases from the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions of the city women and girls in sex commerce were certainly vulnerable to venereal disease.

evidence only marginally supports that fleet entice the girl into her brothel, but the report sheds light on how these establishments served multiple functions making space for sex leisure and socializing but even serving the purposes of healing these reports seldom explained details from the perspectives of black women indeed. the record does not even provide a name for the girl stories like her should light on the fact that black women experienced the war very differently depending upon their social and economic position. at the beginning of the war the provost marshal recorded 450 registered body houses and the evening star reported 5,000 prostitutes working in washington city alone not including the 2,500 women in georgetown in alexandria who worked in the wartime sex economy. a register kept my officials featured 12 colored body houses with addresses that were difficult to decipher because of their location hidden among ali communities. residential blocks in 19th

century washington typically included streets within the block that formed a tea or h shape. more noticeable structures faced outwards towards the street but behind the houses and buildings and habitants particularly those associated with the quote unquote lower classes lived in congregated in the smaller configurations of the alleys. the alley streets typically measured 30 feet wide and structures stood within much closer proximity to adjacent buildings. was solicitation occurred near union military camps and along the main thorough affairs with a hype with high foot traffic the quarters in which sex and leisure took place existed beyond the prominent avenues and into the alleys where makeshift structures occupied by black inhabitants remained out of sight. for instance mrs. seal and brown theodosia herbert rebecca gaunt sarah wallace and josephine webster appeared in the register with establishments located in the alleys. the record listed the number of inmates according to a hierarchy of race and status with one

being the best and low being the worst. ranked pretty far down the list of establishments the registrar shows two houses located in the rear of e street. the rear typically indicated that structures existed closer to alleys although these two houses ranked lower on the scale a place located in the alleys didn't always equate to lower status. tin cup alley housed many black and white body houses including those operated by theodosia herbert rebecca gonch and sarah wallace who ranked in the first and second years. think of ali served as a popular site of interracial sex and leisure enterprises that appeal to a broader range of clientele. seal and brown on the other hand manage the their operation and marble alley and enterprise regarded as a particularly low body house. a notorious site for prostitution marble alley was nestled between pennsylvania and missouri avenues within the crime written district popularly known as murder bay. similarly josephine webster

owned a place that employed 12 prostitutes in fighting alley also known for crime. webster most likely managed tight quarters that attracted a number of clients this classification system may also serve as an indicator of the quote unquote class standing of the patrons, but as the locations and rankings of women's establishments show. facilities amenities and the degree to which clients entered spaces that made them vulnerable to crime determine how clients and officials categorized black owned sites of sex and leisure. the marshal's attempts to document the list of body houses revealed the degree to which officials regarded the growth of the sex economy as an unwieldy enterprise to be controlled and surveyed. even as the number of prostitutes and body houses increased the establishments appeared more discreet with the conditions of overcrowding in the use of ali dwellings for such purposes. as soldiers and civilians moved in and out of the purview of city streets officials struggle to keep track of every rendezvous of soldiers and black

prostitutes. the tension in black women's work in criminalized and sexualized enterprises remains in the degree of autonomy afforded in working with relative flexibility and the subsequent sexual commodification vulnerability to violence and exploitation that came with it. as free black women discovered entrepreneurial ways to take advantage of the wartime economy the social and political transformations of the war led to the demise of slavery in washington. the outbreak of war and the mobilization of the military not only transformed the dynamics of the local local labor economy, but the union's commitment to emancipation on april 16 1862 abraham lincoln signed to bill ben abolished slavery and compensated slaveholders in washington in december of that same year. emmeline wedge filed petitions on behalf of herself her two children and her sister alice thomas who are all enslaved on the property belonging to alexander mccormick. mccormick refused to take advantage of the compensation provision of the new

emancipation law in demolin saw an opportunity. he reluctantly appeared before the clerk of the court after receipt of a summons according to court records mccormick quote denied the constitutionality of the emancipation act and said that he would bide his time until it was declared unconstitutional end quote. besides he was a citizen with rights to property and why would anyone take seriously claims made by an enslaved woman? well, the supplemental act passed in the summer of 1862 permitted enslaved women in the district of columbia to testify against white men and women for the first time. as an enslaved woman wedge challenged both the legal validity of her enslavement. and for the first time forced mccormick to contend with her testimony against him the facts of emmeline wedges case revealed the unique geographic position of washington dc and the neighboring chesapeake counties as a distinctive geopolitical battleground over liberty during the civil war. evidence showed that mccormick's farm was located along the border dividing the district

from maryland and that just one day after the emancipation act became long. he instructed the slaves to reside on the maryland side of his property. according to the records of the board of commissioners he built a small tenement for them on the maryland side while his main living quarters remained in the district along with the cowpen and other buildings included on the homestead. while mccormick generally prohibited enslaved people from traveling to the district side of the property. it was proven that alice was required to drive cattle from the pasture to the cow pen, which was located on the district side unidentified witnesses also testified that they had seen the women and children in mccormick's washington home daily and that for approximately seven or eight weeks emmeline and her family resided in the district. the board of commissioners ultimately acknowledged emmaline's right to claim freedom under the emancipation act of 1862. ideas about liberty and bondage were tied to place in washington was changing women like wedge assumed a new role not completely carved out for them,

but with anticipation and even hope for what could be throughout the course of wartime emancipation refugee women and freed women navigated the power dynamics that made liberty possible in order to secure it for themselves and their kin. former bond women employed their knowledge of the geographic and political significance of washington as they approached officials of the government to make claims to liberty. these experiences were distinctive and how they transformed their own futures as well as the significance of the nation's capital as a side of liberty. throughout the course of the war black women litigated petitioned and organized in the capital the legal and extralegal steps. they took to realize liberty said in motion and array of claims to their lives and labors. refugee women who arrived in the capital during the civil war did so at their own risk confronting a system in which their legal status was deeply ambiguous refugee and fugitive women took advantage of the geographic and political position of washington dc particularly in instances

where they arrived from slaveholding states during or after 1862. many of them traveled to the district from virginia a bastion of the confederacy or maryland to let loyal slaveholding state according to the laws and customs of the confederacy black women coming from virginia were considered fugitives and depending on one's views refugees. with virginia and rebellion officials might be less sympathetic to virginia slaveholders, but an enslaved woman could never be sure the intra-regional ties were strong and locals with southern sympathies likely undermined black women's liberty claims if the opportunity concerned with the piecing loyalists in maryland the federal government legally protected the interests of slaveholders in the state by upholding the fugitive slave law of 1850. depending on whether the laws of the confederacy or the union applied black women traveling from slaveholding states could be considered enslaved even as wartime emancipation took its course. thus black women remained in the state of legal limbo as they navigated wartime policy created in the interests of state's

loyal to the union and against the interests of the confederacy. in many instances slaveholders. hope to entice parents to remain on farms by withholding children as a result black women sometimes took matters into their own hands in order to retrieve their children from the grips of plantar exploitation and create a life where their families could enjoy the fruits of their own labors. jane kamper a former bond woman who belonged to william townsend of talbot county maryland reportedly told mr. townsend quote of my having become free and desired my master to give my children and my bed clothes. he told me that i was free, but that my children should be bound to him and quote. she testified further that quote he locked my children up so that i could not find them. i afterwards got my children by stealth and brought them to baltimore and quote. camper like many other freed women risked her life to save her children by stealth from unconsented apprenticeship. she concluded her statements saying quote. my master pursued me to the boat to get possession of my

children, but i hid them on the boat and as campers story reveals the union government made the freedom of black women and children lawful, but not always tangible even upon assuming freedom rights gained from the war black women continue the work of restituating their relationship between themselves the government and the communities in which they lived. the stories of these women do not fit into neat historiographical themes, but show the rather complicated and unanticipated directions in which their lives took shape. this history of black women does not fit neatly in the american front this history of black women does not frame american liberty and exceptional terms, but instead tells a story about the obstacles that come with the ways that slavery raise and gender posed barriers to liberty and the manner in which black women and girls in washington responded throughout the course of the war black women forged a dynamic relationship between themselves and the government and they combated both white resistance and violence and searched for family housing and

jobs liberty remain to work in progress. our second distinguished speaker today is cr gibbs the author or co-author of six books including black copper and bright the district of columbia's black civil war regiment and black inventors from africa to america two million years of invention and innovation. he wrote researched and narrated sketches and color a 13-part companion series to the acclaimed pbs series the civil war for who tv the howard university television station. he is a frequent lecture on a variety of historical topics and has appeared numerous times on national and international television programs. in 1989. he founded the african history and culture lecture series whose scholars provide free presentations at libraries churches and other locations in

the washington baltimore area. in 2009 the congressional black caucus veterans brain trust honored mr. gibbs for his more than three decades of articles exhibits and presentations on the military heritage of africans and african-american. and now to speak on the underground railroad in washington dc. we are delighted to welcome see our gibbs to the program. hello, let me thank everyone particularly the abraham lincoln institute and its staff and employees. it's important that you understand at the beginning that the underground railroad is a golden chapter in the history of human endeavor. it despite its risks despite its dangers it demonstrates. an amazing degree of inner racial cooperation upon its pages are inscribed actions by men women and children making them and marking them as bold

courageous and brave. the underground railroad swirled around the lives the life of abraham lincoln and not only in washington dc which is the main focus of my talk today, but even in small, springfield, illinois, we know that for example, jameson jenkins who was a conductor on the underground railroad in springfield lived on a street the same block that the president and his wife live. in washington dc the activities of the underground railroad would grow more than fourfold and we know that it impacted lincoln in 1855 before he came to the nation's capital. he said he hated to see the the poor dimples hunted down but he was a believer in property rights and that that was supreme to him. he would comment it on it several times during his life. but my mission this afternoon is

to take you to the underground railroad in washington dc. and our first image is one of one of these singular institutions in that. enterprise and that is asbury methodist church. and found it in 1836. it was a linchpin in the free black community and a main stay in terms of offering services to the enslaved community of the nation's capital. it was at 11th in k where it still is today and many of its. parishioners we're also members of one of the boldest attempts at freedom in the local history of the underground railroad, and that is of course perhaps better known as the pearl affair 173 years ago this past a spring it was where the planning of an

incredibly audacious attempt. at freeing not simply one or a handful of enslaved people but more than 70 the discussions began here members of the congregation were participants. and we see that in this pearl affair which today is commemorated at 1701 duke street in old town alexandria, you know when you get there because it's right across the street from whole foods. you'll you'll get a sense of at least the compelling stories of the edmonds and sisters. but of course this attempted slavery was more than just the activities of two freedom seeking black women. black women's courageousness is written all throughout the existence of the underground railroad in the nation's capital and we'll talk about a few of them as our story goes on the

activities for example of lucinda clark bush who was one of the conductors if you will a member not of the stately asbury methodist church, but also the second baptist church a institution founded in 1848 which still extant as was as is asbury the second baptist church exists today just off of third and massachusetts avenue it fell to lucinda clark bush lucy as she was sometimes known to help get all of these people more than 70 down to the dc war. that would be the point of departure. and it would be a place where the ship had come in a small schooner had recently carried coal. amid the dust and dirt of the hold of the ship these people decided that freedom would be

the lodest star it would be everything that risked their lives for. they were able to get about a hundred and fifty miles down river before. the weather gave them away. the winds with slack their sales died down and they were left near cornfield harbor almost. it seemed to them. i have no doubt. and inches within that turn into the bay and their ultimate travel north well, the slave owners had not trusted the fate of their enslaved people to the vagaries of the wind. no, they sent a steamboat after them called the salem and out from the port of georgetown and it caught up with overtook. the pearl and they were returned to dc. in fact the tumult that was

caused as a result of this unequivocal unequivocal desire by black people to be free help to sweep at least some of the chatter that went on while the participants in the pro-slavery dialogues like to say that freedom seeking black folks suffered from a disease at the disease was known as draperto mania. no, there was no sign of infirmity among these brave souls. and two of the women the edmondson sisters, that would be so well known and were so stoutly chronicle by dr. nunley in the previous presentation would be a have their futures attached to at least one of them. to the school by our good friend murtilla minor but back to the women the two of the edmondson

sisters who would be sold to a slave owner in alexandria this particular man. bruin was not simply a man who was interested in selling the farm hands. no, he had a connection with the plakage system a system of enforced prostitution is in new orleans these attractive systems the edmonds and girls would be so there but and outbreak of yellow fever required that the sisters soon be returned to the grew enslave pen at what is now 1701 duke street in old town alexandria, and they would be kept there and while they were kept it was a national campaign to rescue these individuals from the more horrible aspects of slavery. sometimes we don't fully appreciate how the force of sex and the prophets to be gained

from it moved the institution of slavery in this country. but they would ultimately be free and while most of the members of the passenger list on the pearl would be sold into deep slavery and other locations yet the courage and fortitude of the edmundson assistants would remain a beacon if for many years to come our next image as as we go along talks about yet another institution. and of course, i'm referring to mount zion methodist church. as we look at the cemetery we see a long-standing testament to the courage of the african-american community in the town of george one of the other books that i've been my honor to co-author was black georgetown remembered and in it.

we explore the history of mount zion methodist church. we also take a look at its graveyard these pillars of stone these testaments to the strength of the black community to exist in spite of crushing. oppression remain with us. they inspire us they call to us in this garden of stone. we know that on the far side of this cemetery. there was a burial ball that served as a place freedom seeking black folk. could hide before they were smuggled down to the water fret at the bottom of the hill and put on ships toward freedoms muslim. can you imagine wanting something that badly that even in the winter time? you would spend nights. among coffins and earns in order to get your freedom.

this is one of the significant lessons that we have for freedom seeking people and why the lesson of the underground railroad in the nation's capital and throughout the north and south stands as a reminder of the ultimate strength of the human condition. it's desire among all people to be free and to have a measure of control over their destiny. when we look at mount zion cemetery, we see the inscriptions on stone and are reminded of generations of black people that in many ways work on the underground railroad had relatives that were that used the underground railroad to get away free and the church records often have notations about going away. which we believe was a notation speaking to the idea of the

person gone away on the underground railroad. we know as well that the georgetown waterfront which is our next image. had been a place of enslavement. we now know that it's part of georgetown's early as history. georgetown had been a slave port a very active slave for but now in a reversal of this role, that would also be a place of rescue as actors on the underground railroad moved their human cargo aboard ships with courageous captains and unbelievably. bold crewman to get them into freedom. we also take a look now at dc whitlock, and that is a map a map of the city and we're going to go sort of around town if you will and and take a look at some

of the ways that the underground railroad. operated if you come with me now to 19th street in in foggy bottom, we are reminded of the 19th street baptist church, which were more than a century. was a linchpin in the black community in foggy bottom it was a place that was active in the underground railroad. it was also a place in which the free black community worked with its enslaved brethren to forge links to a black community that would last in foggy bottom. well after the last auctioneers block fell in the nation's capital, we also are aware that going back up to second baptist church. the second baptist church was active of third and massachusetts the precise.

address was 816 third street, and i i mentioned lucinda bush clark. who helped to round up the people in? for the pearl, but she was one of many elizabeth smallwood was yet another african-american woman. who we know about her exploits on the local underground railroad because her husband thomas smallwood wrote a narrative about their activities and during the eighteen forties. they moved more than 150 freedom seekers out of the misery that was slavery in washington dc and the surrounding maryland counties in to the glories of what would be freedom in canada and other places. we must consider. other dangers that competent that afflicted rather the people

who sought to use the underground railroad in your mind's eye. i would have you come with me now. to what would sunday be georgia avenue, but in these days it is august the 8th. it is 1850 and a carriage late at night is zooming out of the city toward what today would be the intersection. of georgia avenue and eastern avenue if you go there today, there's a small park if you have a moment. pull over and to jessup blair park if you would if you have the time and look for a waste-side exhibit that talks about the faithful events of august 8th 1850. you see coming from the district? would be a two-person carriage and driving it would be a white abolitionist named chaplain. he did not know that there would

be a posse waiting for him. just as he crossed the line into maryland. that posse if you will that gaggle of slave hunters would be so filled with bloodlust that they stab the doors of the coach. they fired into the coach. seeking to recapture two black men garland and allen. and these were not ordinary field hands. please understand this. they were the legal property of two of the most famous defenders of slavery in the united states senate. they had to be recaptured. they had to be made to understand the error of their ways because after all. currently there owners in the senate had talked about how slavery was. good for black people and this gave the lie to that. and they would be returned as chaplain would be to the

district, maryland and the district would contend over who's going to put this man on us show trial to use a 20th century return. but the events of that night. echoed throughout the entire operation of the underground railroad. so when you get a chance go there if you would please just do the intersection of georgia and eastern avenue. i would also have you as we're driving around the city in our vehicle that doesn't have to observe traffic or parking rules. come with me to 20 second and eight streets northwest. there is a brushy area at 22nd and h and i want you just to step. off the curb right as you walk into that corner. there is a plaque on the ground. and on that plaque you will see that it commemorates the house

of one of the most effective conductors on the underground railroad i won't tell you his name. i will ask you to go and and see it and read about it. and so you'll learn about this man. he was a hack driver one of the few occupations open to black men in the district. and he took people out of dc as far away as loudoun county. he would ultimately be cause of his efficacy. as a sluggler to freedom's doorstep be forced to leave this area. in fact the bushes coming out of second baptist would have to leave leave this area as well. to understand fully we go back to the story of georgia and eastern avenue, and we know that the slave owners employed a group of people also known as slave hunters.

dc had in for black people in those days. it was an oppressive society. it was a police state whether every move was watched. and one of the men leading the group of slave hunters that night of august 1850 was a man named got it who was already known to the people who were helping work on the underground railroad here was an an iron faced man who it seemed to take a savage glee into catching black folk, his minions were known to stand outside black churches and to wait for the ten o'clock horn or bell and and snatch black people up off the street. in an effort to bring them to the magistrate this kind of behavior astonished the english author charles dickens an american notes, which he writes in the 1840s that black people walking down.

the street could be accosted by any constable. they didn't need to be doing anything wrong. they did not need to sunder a single ordinance it seemed. as though the color of their skin for what other evidence would they have? that they were escaping slaves. when you try to unravel the nettlesome. equation of black relations with the police you must come back to these times or you will never fail to completely understand that from the coming of this country black people were seeing as people that needed to be surveilled they needed to be watched they needed to be apprehended. for doing nothing more simply than going about their daily a task and wishing most of all for those who were enslaved to be free. dickens reminds us that in the city named after washington. that was already accumulating a

reputation as a country the land of the free and the home of the brave in dc a black person could be apprehended and then taken to jail, but your question is obviously what if he is a free black man. who's going to come and claim even when they advertise him in the newspapers? and you're right. no one's going to come and claim him. he will then be sold to pay. jops. such was the reputation of washington dc during these inhospitable times that iran across an 1844 article in the australian literary journal that talks about a black man snatched off the streets alleged to be an escaping slave. he was a free black man. he did not have his papers and you would think that he would be let go no. the australian literary journal tells us that he was sold to pay

jail fees this these are the risks moreover. in 1839 a young boy named jim. was apprehended. as they say it lurking about the capital. he wouldn't tell them what he was doing there, but they soon believed he was trying to get away on the underground railroad. so they convinced him to tell him tell them even more. by dragging him to a local blacksmith shop. and they tortured him. victoria portrait him. they putting his fingers in a blacksmith buys. i don't know how many of you might be familiar with westerns, but if you know about a blacksmith shop you can imagine how quickly a place for to shoot horses and to care for them and to feed them. could be turned into a torture chamber and this is what happened in august of 1839 for a

man. we only know as boy jim. this is one of the risks of the underground railroad and yet. those who sought freedom be they from virginia or or maryland or in the district itself, which was regarded by many as the southern terminus of one leg of the underground railroad. they were willing to do everything and that simply wasn't limited to people that we don't know. we know for example that no less than william h seward a member of lincoln's cabinet worked with one of the leaders of the free black community james wormley james wormley who they work together during the civil war while both men within washington to bring freedom seeking people from the james river area to washington dc. it is my hope that you will

understand and appreciate. that this required the greatest of secrecy. there's still people whose families have told me stories about their work on the underground railroad, which they cannot. and do not feel fully safe to the bulge even now. after legal slavery has been buried. before i close i want to just mentioned georgetown for a second. some of slavery's most horrible. images came out of that tiny community and it's worth noting that their institutions in georgetown that were part of the slave ocracy and still are there today? georgetown university as it was known in those days, georgetown college not only engineered a sale of more than 200 enslaved people most of whom were in louisiana, but we know that

there are escape posters from georgetown. university that there were slave sales in georgetowns along some of it's busier streets. so georgetown doesn't escape this kind of history either. and i'd like to end with an observation by frederick douglass. which is that? no, man can tell the intense agony which is spelled by the slave when wavering on the point of making his escape all that he has is at stake and even that which he has not is at stake also. the life which he has may be lost and the liberty. he seeks may not be gained. perhaps then one crucial lesson from the history of the underground railroad is that yes indeed black folk were willing to risk. the ultimate for what they perceived their lives for the ultimate price freedom. thank you very much.

thank you so much to you both for those wonderful presentations. i want to remind our viewers at home that you can post questions on social media and they'll get sent to us here so that our speakers can address them. and we actually just got our first question in so that's perfect timing. this is for tamika. you said you talked about black women being able to testify in court against white men and women for the first time. can you speak more about the importance of that and the impact of that change in american law? yeah for sure and so for most of the time leading up to the civil war black women particularly enslaved black women were not permitted to testify against white americans. they were deposed right and so in that sense you can get some information about their perspectives, but for the most part, right they were barred from being able to testify against a slave holders. and so the supplemental act

which was passed after the dc emancipation act allowed for enslaved women to testify for the first time against slave holders who either refused compensation refuse to acknowledge the emancipation act or even who try to force their children into apprenticeship agreements through the orph. chords, and so this was really a seminal moment when dc allowed for emancipation, but they soon legislators soon realized that there needed to be some follow-up legislation that made this more tangible and so black women were then able to mobilize that new supplemental act in their interests. i i wanted to ask you as well. you have a whole chapter on courts. okay, talk about the other kinds of experiences that women are black women are facing in court the charges that they're facing throughout the early republic. yes for sure. so i look at courts in very

distinct ways. right? and so i think that there's a way in which historians can write about courts to focus and emphasize black women's liberty claims. and so i include some stories that feature black women making claims to freedom through the law and using the courts to do that and i think william thomas's new book. does that even more than my book in in does that more in depth, but then i also see the courts not just as a side of liberation, but as a site of surveillance and criminalization, right and so for black women who maybe cannot find jobs right or end up working in sex and leisure they end up in the courts as well for very different reasons. and so the point of that chapter is to complicate how we see the courts to see it. complexity and its context and also see it at an individual level where black women are approaching the court or forced into the court for very different reasons. that's great.

cr. we got our first question for you. and the question is you mentioned that a lot of the people the leaders of the underground railroad in dc were women and this person asked if you could speak more about the role of women in the underground railroad how they might have acted as leaders. i am constantly amazed that that these black women were able to if you will finesse the patriarchal notion of the churches and and oftentimes their husbands to engage in work that many considered absolutely sacred. and we we understand that we we can sort of typify this we look at. the activities of the edmundson sisters for example and and more importantly their mother. and i have an election that i do on dc emancipation. the description of a mother who

saw her child beaten for attempting to under escape on the underground railroad. and i believe it's from a paper called the washington independent and while you read how the mother? first at her child but taking such a risk she at the same time seems to be tray a moment of pride in the courage of her daughter and understanding perhaps more so than her than her young child everything that she had to go through in order to get to where she would have courage to step out on the underground railroad and what we see is that the black women were able to use the institutions inside the church if you will as circles of activity that it's just to them in organizing as well as propagating the news about attempts at escape. so these are ways in which

despite the dangers that they had to go through that they were able to use the system often inside the churches to get information out in the case of lucinda bush to go get folk to go down to to the war and given the level of oppression and suspicion by which the movements of black people were regarded in this city. we need to talk about in the deep south but even in this city. i find it quite remarkable. yeah, i recently watched henry louis gates is wonderful documentary on the black church and one of the things he talks about is the way that african-american women are able to bring about social reform and transformation through the meeting through the institution of the church. so that's fascinating to hear that that was part of this underground railroad story as well. yes. tamika we have a question about the woman who is looking over your shoulder there. can you talk about elizabeth? keckley?

yes for sure. so essential theme in the book is black women and girls engaging in acts of self-making and so they're trying to define life on their terms. they're trying to present themselves in ways that are really important to them and speak to their truth their values right and no one. does this better than elizabeth keckley who really goes from being an enslaved woman who cultivates this tremendous gift at dressmaking and is able to mobilize that gift for to purchase their freedom and the freedom of her son and then goes on to become a leading voice in civil war washington and so a feature of the book is that black women are occupying different statuses, right? and so dc is interesting and that you could see enslaved women. you can see fugitive women you see a free women right and they occupy these various statuses and their life changes over time and so the book tries to make

space for those changes and so keckley's life right very much represents what that trajectory could look like, right? and what happens when black women are able to define life on their terms and so she's very cognizant of how she presents herself. she is very intentional and strategic about the kinds of organization. she creates the kind of church. she attends, right? she's very selective about her clients and even the cover of the book the dress that she adorns right is very meticulously put together and even staged and i think in some ways as a visual representation of kind of the concept running through the book and that's that of self-making. i'm curious. did she do you know did she attend 15th street presbyterian? sure did yeah, i mean that's one of the centers of black activism henry highland garnett is the for the second half of the war and yeah, that's great. um, let's see. we got a another question for you. see our and one is about the

infirmity that escapes were able to suffer from or thought to suffer from the question is what was i guess what if for infirmities did they suffer from? could you talk a little bit more about that aspect of their struggles to become free. sure, the powers that be were aware of the image of enslavement and and sought to mitigate that by trying to suggest. that they had doctors who could who could put labels on this that would take away from the the dichotomy of freedom or slavery. so in dr. samuel cartwright? rights into bose review, which is a kind of time magazine of slavery that freedom seeking black folks suffered from drapettomania and and i'm pronouncing it like that.

so you will get a sense of hard to spell dr. a p e t o m a n i a it is the desire to want to run away and and the insidious thing about this is that it would it's an attempt to steal agency from black people as if we don't know the difference between freedom and oppression that if we recognize something we we it must be a virus. it must be some sort of pathogen that's making us do this because we wouldn't do it. otherwise, of course and and so he can't right and several others of his ilk came up with a raft of fake diseases another one is diastasia ethiopica or hebrew food of the mind which made us want to break tools and and put ground glass in masters buttermilk and things like that in other words again. not that we had a conscious

desire to it, but that it was some pathogen pushing us to make these kinds of actions which of course is ridiculous. but the again we know that there was a pro slavery lobby and they were concerned with to a certain extent the public image of it, which is why for so long and even today people want to forced upon us images of the happy contented dancing darky on the slave plantation. were those fake diseases developed after the 1830s when abolitionism is beginning to really grow as a movement, or do they go back to the 18th or early 19th century? you know, we we see them rise at with sort of an organized emphasis the 1830s or so. i understand that the american psychiatric association has begun to apologize for being

part of that the samuel cartwright infamous in this activity was a member in good standing of what would come to be the american psychiatric institute and and so much of their early work has to be disregarded because it was based on false notions of black humanity and luckily at least now, they've begun to apologize for it. hmm, that's interesting tamika. we got a question for you about the sex work that black women and girls engaged in you mentioned that that was a financial stop gap for black women. was it common for them to be able to get financially stable enough to that line of work? um, so it's interesting once the women that i've i've seen in the record become sort of known as a higher level body house. maybe that can demand higher prices. they don't leave actually that's

more incentive to stay. whereas sometimes during the war because of the conditions of war and the influx of soldiers and politicians to the nation's capital and their families oftentimes right the crowding of refugees means that there's less jobs. it means that there are sort of desperate conditions. and so that becomes kind of a way to survive during the war right so for some women, right? it's the war time right? there's escaping from other parts of the south they're making their way to the nation's capital the conditions and some of the camps are not ideal right and thinking about barker's barker's camp, right? and so, um, it's like friedman's village, right? and so they venture out into the streets right and they venture out into the streets to pursue sex work to survive, but then there are some that begin to create enterprises that look more like a parlor style body

house very very much like some of the white women who cater to some of the elite men of the city where you're creating kind of setting a scene of domesticity right in this fantasy of being a part of an elite household in elite intimate household and so some of the black women who engage in those kinds of enterprises oftentimes remain because it is profitable and so what it forces us to do is think more fluidly about self-making right and i think traditionally we have thought about black women in terms of education and leadership and social reform, but we haven't really thought a lot about sex work and how it provides an avenue to survival. essential independence, even as it comes with risks of violence and exploitation and so it you know, it's i say this in the book, you know to leave prostitution out would leave it generically absent and i really believe that because it's it's

this huge industry, right? that's employing black women. yeah. wow a cr this one is for you and you talked about the tragedy of free black people being arrested and sold into slavery to pay for their jail fees and this this questioner wondered were there any legal protections for african-american who were accused of being enslaved when they were actually free or who were arrested in jail and then had to pay these fees dc gained a reputation for being dangerous for for black people and several northern states passed. what were called personal liberty laws to sort of give them some sort of recompense in a way, but the problem is is that once you're caught up in the mall of this system. you people lose contact with you. you might you go you might be lost for a time and so my go-to

example is solomon northup, you know, i mean he is a free black man lure to washington dc new york has the makings of a personal liberty law, but that doesn't help him and so he winds up 12 years in slave because he is lured down here. his papers are stolen. he is drug and then carry across them all and put on a vessel at the southwest war for more than a decade a horrible barbarous enslavement in louisiana. yeah, i was actually gonna ask you about that. you mentioned the slave hunters and now solomon north oak. can you talk more about the kidnapping problem in in washington and in the north what some people have called the reverse underground railroad? i mean how common is of experience in dc? all all too common all too common again for it to be

mentioned in an australian literary journal, you know, you you kind of know that there may have been something going on before that. and so it was in the district and not just simply visitors to the district. we have a man named michael schenner who worked at the washington navy yard who sold fruits and vegetables at eastern market and then in the 1850s, i'm sorry 1830s. he comes home from work and his family has disappeared. his entire family is gone. they had sold to franklin and armfield slave prison at 1315 duke street in old town alexandria and with a on a degree of understatement remarkable even for that time. he mentions the pain of having to walk and if if people are familiar with dc imagine having to walk from let us say the navy

yard or eastern market all the way down across the 14th street bridge and at the end of the 14th street bridge, you're still not in alexandria, and he did that three times in one day every step must have been the insane torture for him. but he had to three of his family was there and they were in the slave pen and then his job after that is i mean he says again with that remarkable understatement and you know and with the assistance of god, i got my wife and children clear. well, it also took money. he had to borrow money and in the next passage. he says i am now under 10,000 obligations. it may not have been literally $10,000, but he now old people money that he had borrowed brought to to free his family. he had to pay to get his own family. free and this is an

extraordinate. we're just lucky to have this in his diary so that we can know about some of the travails in the lives of free blacks who lived in washington dc. yeah, i'm reminded shortly after the pearl incident which you talked about. there was a an african-american waiter who worked at mrs. spriggs's boarding house. where the library of congress now sits who was kidnapped and that came to the floor of congress. can you talk a little bit about that? we believe that anna spriggs and and if you're at all familiar with dc it occupied her boarding house occupied one of the satellite buildings of the library of congress. probably the adams building. we think. and lincoln was was boarding there and he learned about the this this black man who we learned was. a short time away from buying his freedom. can you imagine freedom is almost within your reach and then you snatch back into

slavery his journey his his trial just again personifies the dangers of living. as a free black person and in we have among the real police reports of the city in 1855. three black men several black men. in fact were caught up perhaps a bit after 10 pm when black people had to be off the street. and james olmsted almost james. olmstead the landscape architect put this down in his book journey to the seaboard slave states. they were swept up in this case. there was nothing illegal about what they were doing. they were meeting one of them had a constitution of apprentice society, which was said to relieve the sick and and bury

the dead they had a subscription paper to try and collect money for the freedom of a young woman named eliza howard. they were locked up. some of the enslavement and with them that night were flogged by the magistrate and the others had to pay fines. again. this is this is real life in dc prior to dc emancipation. yeah. well to make a we got another question for you, and this one has to do about the educational opportunities that black women and girls had in washington. can you can you talk about a little more about what their education looked like and one of the things i would love to hear more about too is how you what sort of records you use to find out about the educational experiences. they had yes, so the records that i found were at the library of congress matilda miners papers and also the cook family papers which had really extensive documentation at morelands being barn at howard

university on black schools, but also just learning and and researching people's profiles of that time was really helpful as well. catholic records are also really important for that the genealogy of that that history and in studying education. actually. that was one of my favorite chapters to write in the book mainly because it really did mystified some of the assump i made about education in dc and so one of the first things to note is that it's not illegal for enslaved people to learn to read and write in dc. it's not desired and it's not desirable if you're a slaveholder right and you certainly have the legal authority to punish and enslaved person for doing something. you don't want them to do within your household, but writ large if enslaved people were going to to school and learning right they could sneak off but they oftentimes didn't have the time

to do that. but all that to say that the schools catered to enslaved people covertly and in cater to free black residents overly, right and sometimes covertly depending on how controversial the school appeared so minor school was targeted by the mayor and you know as i mentioned in the in my paper, right the mayor says that this is this is a threat to the actual union right? i was like whoa, like when i found that in the record, i thought that was wild and i found that in papers but education was a collective enterprise. it was very much shaped by mutual aid and so many of the schools were able to to exist because of the collective effort of both women and men who are pulling their resources together to be able to i didn't education for their community and it was also very in age there were schools that were for adults

working adults. right who perhaps cannot go to school during the daytime and then there were schools for children who are part of this sort of emerging black middle class instead of families. and so they varied in age they varied and legal status some of them were in people's houses. some of them were in church basements some were in actual buildings that were specifically done designed for schools. and so it varied in what you saw was just this tremendous effort on behalf of everyone in dc particularly the black community to really mobilize resources to create as many schools as they possibly could and so the idea was that if you attended one of these schools as a young kid that maybe one day you would become a teacher or principal of one of those schools as well. and so it was creating an activists educational tradition in dc right? well, incredible and you see that really then explode during the civil war years when?

black african-american's become teachers and missionary societies hoping to train people to go out and teach others. yeah, they're ready. yeah. they're out of time. i want to thank for joining us today for your wonderful remarks. i want to commend your books to everyone at home to make a nunley at the threshold of liberty. and i have i don't have cr what you've written on the underground railroad, but i do have black copper and bright which is a history of the first us ct which was a black regimen raised in washington dc two wonderful books that i highly recommend to our viewers at home. i want to thank forge theater for hosting this over the past eight weeks. it's been wonderful to get to continue the abraham lincoln institute symposium, even if we can't do it in person, but i do want to say that i hope we will be able to do it again in person at ford's theater in march of 2022. so for all of you who have joined us. thank you so much and thank you again to ford's.

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