[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 106 (Thursday, June 17, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF THE GEORGETOWN WATERFRONT ENSLAVED VOYAGES MEMORIAL ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 17, 2021

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the Georgetown 
Waterfront Enslaved Voyages Memorial Act. This bill would authorize the 
establishment of a memorial on federal land in the District of Columbia 
commemorating the enslaved individuals who disembarked at the 
Georgetown waterfront after forced migration to the United States by 
way of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The commemorative work, to be 
established by the Georgetown African American Historic Landmark 
Project and Tour, would honor the enslaved individuals' presence, 
celebrate their contributions to history, recognize their resilience 
and fortitude and acknowledge their deeds and feats.
  This week, we recognize Juneteenth (June 19), which marks the arrival 
of the news of emancipation to enslaved African Americans in 
Confederate-controlled Texas--two years after the Emancipation 
Proclamation was issued--the final end of slavery in the United States. 
Juneteenth celebrates the culmination of the long struggle for freedom 
from bondage in the United States. This monumental event prompts us to 
reflect on the past and look to the future.
  For four centuries, enslavers packed 12.5 million captive Africans 
into their ships to sell as chattel in the Americas. The vestiges of 
this history are everywhere yet scarcely marked, including here in the 
District. The Georgetown waterfront had an extensive and long-neglected 
history of involvement in the slave trade. Due to its location at the 
northernmost navigable point on the Potomac River, North Potomac, as it 
was then known, the Georgetown waterfront was a busy commercial port 
that operated as a mid-Atlantic trading center of enslaved people.
  The first Africans were brought as slaves through the Georgetown port 
in 1732. Though records are incomplete, scholars have determined that 
between that year and 1761, seven ships carrying an estimated 1,475 
enslaved people arrived there. Those who survived the traumatic 
``Middle Passage'' voyage were marched through tunnels that led from 
the C&O Canal, through the sewage system, to a slave auction block on M 
Street, now Georgetown's main commercial thoroughfare.
  Commodities to be sold for profit, these people were assigned no more 
value in America than that paid for them by enslavers. Slavery and the 
slave trade remained for generations an integral part of the United 
States. While the entire contribution of enslaved African Americans in 
the District and region cannot be determined, we know with certainty 
that white citizens and the federal government both relied heavily on 
enslaved labor to build the Nation's capital.
  We must not hide from this history. The enslaved individuals, known 
and unknown, who disembarked at the Georgetown waterfront after forced 
migration, rest at the core of our Nation's shared history. The 
atrocities of the system of chattel slavery shed light on our Nation's 
central struggle between slavery and freedom--a freedom under which 
some could be owned, beaten, separated from their families, and denied 
any rights. This bill provides for the creation of a powerful marker of 
truth-telling and remembrance. Let us honor the personhood of these 
individuals, who were repeatedly assumed to have none, so that they 
will never be forgotten.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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