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John
Adams Quest for Abolition of Slavery
(17671848)
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George Caleb Bingham
(18111879)
Oil on canvas, circa 1844
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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| As a member of
the United States House of Representatives in the 1830s, former
President John Quincy Adams performed some of his noblest
service to his country as a staunch and oftentimes courageous
spokesman for the abolition of slavery. Yet he wisely knew and
accepted the limitations placed upon him. In October 1837, he
addressed his situation in his diary: I have gone as far upon
this article, the abolition of slavery, as the public opinion of
the free portion of the Union will bear, and so far that
scarcely a slave-holding member of the House dares to vote with
me upon any question.
At this same time Adams became
personally involved in buying the freedom of a slave woman and
her two children, whose fates were in the hands of a notorious
Alexandria, Virginia, slave trader named James H. Birch. Toward
a subscription to purchase their freedom, Adams contributed what
little he could spare, fifty dollars.
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This
Alexandria slave pen was the establishment of Price, Birch & Co.,
dealers in slaves. The occupation of Alexandria by Union soldiers on
May 24, 1861, terminated this business immediately. Many Yankees from
the far North, in the South for the first time, had never before seen
an African American. The slave pen became a curiosity and tourist
attraction for thousands of soldiers who passed through Alexandria
during the war. This wartime photograph was taken in August 1863.
Library of Congress |
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Interior
of the Alexandria slave pen
The slave pen of Price, Birch & Co. was used
during the Union occupation of Alexandria as a jail to detain drunken
and disorderly soldiers. This interior view of the cell blocks
illustrates but one vicious aspect of the slave trade.
Library of Congress |
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