[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 324 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 324

Recognizing the historic abolitionist events surrounding the Pearl, and 
                honoring its legacy in American history.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 16, 2021

 Ms. Norton submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                 the Committee on Oversight and Reform

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                               RESOLUTION


 
Recognizing the historic abolitionist events surrounding the Pearl, and 
                honoring its legacy in American history.

Whereas, on April 16, 1848, 77 slaves attempted to flee slavery in the District 
        of Columbia and Alexandria, Virginia, on the Pearl, a schooner waiting 
        for them in the Potomac River;
Whereas, on April 14, 1848, three White men brought the ship to the District of 
        Columbia, and Daniel Drayton, the captain and owner of the Pearl, 
        chartered the schooner for $100 and arranged for the slaves' travel;
Whereas the escape was initiated by free Blacks Paul Jennings, who had been a 
        slave of President James Madison, and Paul Edmonson;
Whereas William Chaplin, a White abolitionist, assisted in connecting the slaves 
        with Drayton;
Whereas abolitionist Gerrit Smith of New York financed the escape;
Whereas 77 slaves, including men, women, and children, sailed on the Pearl down 
        the Potomac River and then into Chesapeake Bay in pursuit of freedom;
Whereas, on April 17, 1848, numerous slaveholders in the District of Columbia, 
        realizing their slaves had fled, sent a posse of 35 men to seek the 
        Pearl;
Whereas the posse met the Pearl near Point Lookout, Maryland, and took the 
        slaves and the ship back to the District of Columbia;
Whereas slavery supporters formed a mob and lashed out at both the White 
        abolitionists involved in the escape as well as free Blacks in the 
        District of Columbia in the Washington Riot of 1848;
Whereas the owners of the escaped slaves sold the escapees to slave traders who 
        took them to New Orleans, Louisiana;
Whereas two of the escapees were purchased and freed in an effort led by Henry 
        Ward Beecher's Plymouth Congregational Church of Brooklyn, New York;
Whereas Drayton and two of the other ship workers were arrested for helping in 
        the escape and were represented in court by Congressman Horace Mann;
Whereas two of the men, including Drayton, after serving four years in prison, 
        were released after being granted a pardon from President Millard 
        Fillmore, based on a recommendation from Senator Charles Sumner; and
Whereas the escape is said to be the single largest known slave escape in 
        American history and to have inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe in her 
        writing the novel ``Uncle Tom's Cabin'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives honors the legacy of 
all those who furthered freedom from slavery, who were involved in the 
Pearl incident, and recognizes their importance to the history of the 
District of Columbia and to American history itself.
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