The Pearl Incident

On the night of April 15th, 1848, 77 enslaved men, women, and children from across the District made their way to the 7th Street pier along DC’s Southwest waterfront. Silently, they boarded the Pearl, and with the rising tide, the ship set sail for freedom.  

 

The Pearl sailed toward the mouth of the Potomac, but stormy weather stopped it from crossing the Chesapeake Bay to reach the New Jersey coast and freedom. Waiting for a change in weather, the ship was overtaken by a new steam powered vessel secured by one of the slave owners enraged at the attempted escape. The Pearl, its passengers, and crew were sent back to Washington.

 

The crew were jailed and the enslaved passengers were taken to the slave pens on 7th Street SW through streets lined with jeering mobs. Moved to Alexandria, they were auctioned for transport to the new cotton fields in Louisiana and along the Mississippi.

 

The Pearl incident was the largest organized non-violent attempt to escape enslavement recorded in pre-Civil War United States history. Its planning and execution engaged many more than the seventy-seven ship passengers. It energized the growing abolitionist movement in the North, strengthened African American networks in the District and linked them more closely with abolitionist sympathizers, and, finally, the attempted escape influenced the debate in Congress over slavery in the new Western territories.