This bill, passed by Congress on September 20, 1850, ended slave trading in Washington, D.C., a notorious slave market. It outlawed the transport of persons into the District for sale and liberated enslaved individuals brought into the city for that purpose. Slavery in the District continued, however, until Congress passed the D.C. Emancipation Act in 1862.
It shall not be lawful to bring into the District of Columbia any slave whatever, for the purpose of being sold.
Records of the United States Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
S. 226, A bill to suppress the slave trade in the District of Columbia, September 3, 1850
Balancing Sectional Interests
In crafting the Compromise of 1850, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky sought to sustain the Union by balancing sectional interests. Northerners supported the provisions outlawing the slave trade in the District of Columbia and admitting California to the Union as a free state; Southerners favored the stricter Fugitive Slave Law and the continuation of slavery in the nation’s capital. After Congress rejected Clay’s original omnibus bill on the territories, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois engineered passage of its key provisions as separate resolutions.
This bill, passed by Congress on September 20, 1850, ended slave trading in Washington, D.C., a notorious slave market. It outlawed the transport of persons into the District for sale and liberated enslaved individuals brought into the city for that purpose. Slavery in the District continued, however, until Congress passed the D.C. Emancipation Act in 1862.
It shall not be lawful to bring into the District of Columbia any slave whatever, for the purpose of being sold.
Records of the United States Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
