Winter Lecture Series: A Great Dividing Line

Gettysburg National Military Park’s Winter Lecture Series continues on Saturday February 22nd with A Great Dividing Line: Slavery and Freedom in Washington, D.C. During the Civil War presented by Ranger Rachael Nicholas.

Freedom began to ring in Washington, D.C. before the end of the war. In 1861 and early 1862, enslaved people from Virginia and Maryland demanded freedom with their feet. They chose Washington as their refuge because it housed Union soldiers and free African Americans sympathetic to their cause.

There was just one problem: the Union capital was also a slaveholding region. What followed was a prolonged conflict between enslaved people, soldiers, Congressmen, and enslavers that propelled Washington—and soon the entire nation—toward emancipation.