Congress Confronting Slavery, Part 1

The U.S. Capitol Historical Society 2006 Spring Conference “Congress and Slavery in the 1840s and 1850s” is the third in the series, “The National Capitol in a Nation Divided: Congress and the District of Columbia Confront Sectionalism and Slavery.” Professor Finkelman served as moderator. Jonathan Earle discussed the building of an anti-slavery movement in Congress from 1838 to 1854, describing its beginnings in the home of Dr. and Mrs. Bailey in Washington, DC during weekly salons. Bailey also wrote an abolitionist newspaper. Kathleen Sullivan talked about police authority in the 1840s to seize free blacks, about the Black Seaman’s Act, and about the different laws and practices in different states. After their presentations the speakers answered audience members' questions.

Professor Earle is the author of, The Undaunted Democracy: Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, published by UNC Press. close