Compensated Emancipation Act (1862)
Wed Apr 16, 1862
Passed on this day in 1862, the Compensated Emancipation Act ended slavery in the District of Columbia. The law offered slavers $300 per enslaved person forfeited, while offering freedmen $100 on condition they move to Haiti or Liberia.
The Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, who was keen on offering slave owners compensation for forfeiting their "property" as a means to not alienate border states in the Civil War. Although it was the only time the U.S. federal government gave direct aid to slaveowners, many state governments took the initiative to do so as well.
The law offered $300 per slave forfeited and $100 to any freed slave, on condition that they move to Haiti or Liberia. Later Lincoln signed a second compensation act into law that allowed former slaves to petition for reimbursement for their own value, but only if their former masters had not already been compensated.
Dr. John Rock, a black physician in Boston, said this of the law's passage:
"Why talk about compensating masters? Compensate them for what? What do you owe them? What does the slave owe them? What does society owe them? Compensate the master?...It is the slave who ought to be compensated. The property of the South is by right the property of the slave..."
3,185 slaves were freed as a direct result of the Compensated Emancipation Act, and the anniversary of its passing is still recognized as the holiday "Emancipation Day" in Washington D.C.
- Date: 1862-04-16
- Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.nytimes.com.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org
