Those of our readers who live in the Washington, DC metro area probably know that tomorrow is the Emancipation Day holiday in Washington, DC. This holiday celebrates the emancipation of slaves in DC in 1862, nearly a year before the Emancipation Proclamation freed most of the slaves in the United States.
My daughter Grace had the wonderful opportunity to chair the writing committee for a research project on the history of slavery and the University of Maryland when she was an undergrad at Maryland. In honor of Emancipation Day, here is a link to the full text of the final report from the project, “Knowing Our History: African-American Slavery and the University of Maryland.” Read it here: http://www.history.umd.edu/slavery/images/KnowingOurHistory.pdf