Congress passed an act in April of 1862 that abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia was the only area in the United States where Congress could pass laws regarding slavery. It was almost nine months before President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. However, the Federal Government did not pay the enslaved. Instead, the Federal Government compensated the enslavers. Enslavers in Washington were given ninety days to submit a petition. The petition had to name each individual they claimed and assign a monetary value to each individual's life. The Commission printed each of these petitions in the Daily National Intelligencer. This allowed members of the public to challenge any false claims made by the enslavers. Prior to my work, nobody had ever transcribed these newspapers into searchable formats. Therefore I have created a searchable format. I have transcribed all 969 petitions, which include the names of 3,096 individuals. I included each name, each assigned monetary value, and any familial relationship indicated on the petition. All of this information is available on our website at no charge. Below are examples of some of the information contained within these petitions. Dennis Ellsworth Tyler, a baby born in 1861, was valued at fifty dollars. He was named after the first Union Officer killed in the war. Philip Reed was valued at fifteen hundred dollars. He cast the Statue of Freedom, a bronze woman positioned above the Capitol Dome. Reed was enslaved when he cast the Statue of Freedom. Gabriel Coakley, a free African American Cabinetmaker, filed a petition on behalf of his wife and children. He had purchased them prior to filing the petition. However, since Coakley had never filed for manumission, he was considered an enslaver under the law of 1862.Therefore, Coakley was required to file a petition to legally establish his family's freedom. Coakley requested $3,300. The Commission awarded him $1,489.20. For many families, the newspaper is the first source that provides their full name. I am interested in locating the descendants of the families listed in the newspaper. While the newspaper provides limited details about the families, the complete petition files located at the National Archives contain additional information. Additional details include ages, height, trade/occupation, health status, and how each enslaver acquired ownership of each enslaved person. There are 969 of these petition files. Additionally, there are 161 additional petitions filed by former enslaved people after a second act passed that summer. Following completion of the petition files, deed books, will books, church records, and census schedules will be utilized to track these families through 1870 and beyond into living memory. People who are currently alive today may not realize their family was listed in the newspaper. We seek to raise $25,000. With this amount we will obtain all petition files from the National Archives, acquire necessary reference materials and subscriptions for research purposes, hire a professional genealogists to spend five months working with the largest families on this list, and develop a searchable database on our website that allows users to find their ancestors for free. Our long-term goal is to raise $100,000. This will allow us to conduct three additional research trips to Washington D.C., obtain deeds and wills from Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, host community record preservation events where individuals can bring their family papers and receive assistance at no cost, retain original documents and receive digital copies of their documents, and record oral histories owned by families. Additionally, we plan to create a "Time Detectives" module that allows young people to select a family from this list and trace it forward through time using publicly available resources. Each stage of fundraising will be made public once each previous stage has been successfully completed.  The Brister English Project is a 501(c)(3) organization. Every contribution will be acknowledged on our website, and once the first descendant is identified, it will be posted on our website. This is documentary research. Genetic testing will not be conducted as part of this fundraising effort. All research will be based upon petition files, deed files, will files, church records, and census schedules. Nothing concerning a living family member will be published without prior written consent from that family. The people on this list have already suffered. Their descendants should not suffer further due to lack of access to their history. Our platform is provided free-of-charge for non-profit organizations.Therefore, all of your donation will directly support this research project. Thank you for considering contributing to the Brister English Project.

Brister English Project

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