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Since the creation of the District of Columbia, antislavery reformers had decried the presence of slavery as a contradiction of the nation's founding principles of freedom, equality, and justice. The nation's capital was a natural target for the early antislavery movement. Constitutionally, Congress controlled the District of Columbia through "exclusive jurisdiction" and could eliminate the slave trade and slavery itself within its borders at any time. When the federal government moved to Washington in 1800, Congress agreed to enforce Maryland's laws in the city, including both slavery and a "black code" that restricted the freedom of all African Americans, slave and free. As a southern city, Washington was a congenial place for slavery to take root. In 1800, thirty percent of the District of Columbia's residents were African Americans, fewer than one-fifth of them free. From its very beginning, visitors and government officials from the North and abroad condemned the capital for its open slave markets, economic reliance on slavery, exploitation of African Americans, and racial discrimination. Immediately after moving into the White House, for example, Abigail Adams wrote contemptuously that "The effects of slavery are visible everywhere." The institution continued to grow steadily until 1830, when the number of slaves in Washington reached its peak, representing twelve percent of the city's population. At the same time, Washington began supplanting Baltimore as a regional center of the slave trade. After 1830, slavery began to decline in Washington as the slave trade drained laborers from the faltering tobacco plantations of the Chesapeake region. Between 1830 and 1860, the slave population fell from its peak of twelve percent to just three percent of the District of Columbia's residents, about 3,300.

Quick timeline on Washington DC tourist site of events and people critical to LGBT movement in Washington.

"Civil War Washingotn, DC." A private blog April 2, 2102 posting gives historical overview of Washington City Canal, once envisioned as a key artery linking the capital with the West via the Potomac and C&O Canal. Backs up narrative with primary sources, e.g. maps, photos, newspapers. Great Library of Congress photos are consolidated here, including overview of Canal w clear view of waterworks and of cattle grazing on its banks.

"Civil War Washingotn, DC." A private blog April 2, 2102 posting gives historical overview of Washington City Canal, once envisioned as a key artery linking the capital with the West via the Potomac and C&O Canal. Backs up narrative with primary sources, e.g. maps, photos, newspapers. Great Library of Congress photos are consolidated here, including overview of Canal w clear view of waterworks and of cattle grazing on its banks.

Quick-fix, feature-story approach to some of DCs major historic events. Includes 1924 World Series Win; Beatles at the Washington Coliseum; Marian Anderson at Lincoln Memorial, Burning of Washington.

Washington post Writer Peter Perl (Marc 1, 1999) revisits the race riots of 1919 in Washington, DC. Four hundred whites moved into black neighborhoods because of a reported sexual assault by an African American on a white woman. This secondary source gives a detailed description of the riots based on primary sources.

Washington post Writer Peter Perl (Marc 1, 1999) revisits the race riots of 1919 in Washington, DC. Four hundred whites moved into black neighborhoods because of a reported sexual assault by an African American on a white woman. This secondary source gives a detailed description of the riots based on primary sources.

Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit A First Step for Racial Equality in the Circuit Court of Washington In 1843, when Nancy Hillman, the only surviving heir of Georgetown's most prominent free black man, tried to collect on money he was owed for 20 years, she faced two obstacles in the Circuit Court. The D.C. Judge Who Bedeviled President Lincoln In the midst of the Civil War, one D.C. judge so irritated Abraham Lincoln that the President ordered his salary withheld and armed soldiers were sent to his home. As if that wasn't enough, the court on which the judge sat, the principal court that had served the District since the inception of its judicial system, was abolished -- primarily to get rid of the judge. An Early Civil Rights Victory in a D.C. Court In 1821 - long before the civil rights movement - a free black man living in Washington won an historic victory for racial justice in a court of the District of Columbia. The Dark Days of the Black Codes Fourteen-year-old Nancy Jones was scared. She had been stopped by a policeman while walking down a Washington, D.C. street, and he had asked to see her papers. Nancy had good cause to be afraid. She was an African American, and it was 1835. And she did not have the papers. The policeman immediately arrested her as a runaway slave. Yet, Nancy was not a slave and never had been one.

Southwest Washington, D.C., is a defined neighborhood even without a proper name; the quadrant has a clear border southwest of the U.S. Capitol Building, nestled along the oldest waterfront in the city. Its physical delineations have defined it as a community for more than 250 years, beginning in the mid-1700s with emerging farms. By the mid-1800s, a thriving urban, residential, and commercial neighborhood was supported by the waterfront where Washingtonians bought seafood and produce right off the boats. In the 1920s and 1930s, an aging housing stock and an overcrowded city led to an increase of African Americans and Jewish immigrants who became self-sufficient within their own communities. However, political pressures and radical urban planning concepts in the 1950s led to the large-scale razing of most of SW, creating a new community with what was then innovative apartment and cooperative living constructed with such unusual building materials as aluminum.

The Smithsonian Institution Building provided a bird's eye view of the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. The Castle's towers provided a clear view across to battles in Virginia and Maryland. Union soldiers drilled on the grounds surrounding the Institution. And the influx of soldiers and citizens to the nation's capital increased the number of visitors to the Smithsonian's exhibits and programs. These images show how remote the Castle was from downtown Washington and how close it was to nearby Confederate Virginia.

Clark Mills, culptor of the Lafayette Park Andrew Jackson statue writes to Washington Post in 1877 about the scandalous shame of the unfinished washington monument

"Within sight of the White House : section of Washington, D.C., known as "Hooker's Division," which contains 50 saloons and 109 bawdy-houses--list of 61 places where liquor is sold with government [sic] but without city licenses." Newspaper clipping. - Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. - Includes text, directory of unlicensed premises, and index to points of interest. - LC copy mounted on cloth backing.

Summarizes landmark 1953 resuscitating laws on the books since 1870s regarding discrimination, but not enforced. A liberal Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public accommodations in Washington, DC, was illegal.

Summarizes landmark 1953 resuscitating laws on the books since 1870s regarding discrimination, but not enforced. A liberal Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public accommodations in Washington, DC, was illegal.

The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. is an excellent resource for modern views on the past of this city. Focusing on public programs, exhibitions, and advertising events and libraries, the Historical Society is a great resource to step into the foray of learning D.C. History.

Google e-book of biography of Andrew Ellicott that includes @20 pages about his work in planning and surveying the District of Columbia (Washington City) written in 1908 by his descendent Catharain Van Cortlandt Mathews.

For over a century, the Willard Hotel has been the gathering place and site of innumerable behind-the-scenes networking among the powerful and famous (and often rich) in Washington.Note its proximity to the White House and other physical centers of power,

"Safe Haven: A Memoir of Playground Basketball." Paul Wice. The author's family joined "white flight" from the DC neighorhood, Petworth in 1956. He returns 38 years later and talks about what has and what has not changed. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40073295