[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 294 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 294

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 13, 2023

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

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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 enslaved people 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 enslaved peoples' 
        travel;
Whereas the escape was initiated by free Blacks Paul Jennings, who had been 
        enslaved by President James Madison, and Paul Edmonson;
Whereas William Chaplin, a White abolitionist, assisted in connecting the 
        enslaved people with Drayton;
Whereas abolitionist Gerrit Smith of New York financed the escape;
Whereas 77 enslaved people, 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 enslavers in the District of Columbia, 
        realizing the people they enslaved 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 
        escapees 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 enslavers sold the escapees to 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 escape by enslaved 
        persons 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 and all of those 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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