Lincoln Signs DC Compensated Emancipation Act

Summary

During the American Civil War, with Southern representatives absent from Congress, Senator Henry Wilson introduced legislation to end slavery in the District of Columbia through compensated emancipation. The bill passed the Senate on April 3 and the House on April 11 before President Abraham Lincoln signed it into law on April 16, 1862. It freed 3,185 enslaved people and allocated one million dollars to compensate loyal owners plus funds for voluntary colonization. An emancipation commission processed claims, with some formerly enslaved individuals also receiving payments under supplemental legislation. This marked the first federal emancipation measure of the war, preceding the Emancipation Proclamation by nine months.