In the Shadow of DC's Slave Pens

With the release of the movie 12 Years A Slave, there has been a lot of discussion online about sites in Virginia where Solomon Northup was taken and held along his journey. I was familiar with a few of them, such as Aquia Harbor and Alexandria.

Northup was even held in DC for awhile since slavery wasn't outlawed there until 1850. I was also aware that while he was in one of the pens in DC, he could see the US Capitol. However, I did not realize that for the past year and a half, I've been working no more than 50 yards from where he was held!

I often sat and ate my lunch outside in an area that, 163 years ago, would have been close enough to hear the enslaved people within the pens.

Go ahead, let that sink in for a minute; I'll wait.

.......

OK, now that it has sunk in, let's continue.

To give you a visual perspective of what I'm talking about, here's an annotated image from Google Maps.

As you can see from the image, my building is right near two of the largest slave operations in Washington, D.C.

One of the slave pens, owned by William H. Williams, was also known as "Yellow House." The space is currently occupied by an FAA building. According to one description, the Williams site was a "modest, well-maintained two-story yellow house, set back by a grove of trees. A 12 foot-high brick wall encircled the rear of the house. The yard provided space for training and selling slaves; in the basement, slaves were detained, chained to walls. A particularly infamous market, sounds of shackles, whips, and fierce dog barks often emanated from the site."

In 1850, a Smithsonian Regent by the name of Jefferson Davis noted that  "[i]t is the house by which all must go who wish to reach the building of the Smithsonian Institution." Eleven years later, Davis would serve as President of the Confederate States of America.

Williams' "Yellow House" location today

The other slave pen, owned by Mr. Robey, is described as being "surrounded by a wooden paling fourteen or fifteen feet in height, with the posts outside to prevent escape and separated from the building by a space too narrow to admit of a free circulation of air." Robey's pen, too, is now occupied by an FAA building.

 

Robey's location today

As I mentioned earlier, it was recorded that Solomon Northup could see the US Capitol while being held in the slave pen. Here's a photo I took from the street between Robey's location on the left and my office building (just out of the frame) on the right.

View of US Capitol today from between Robey's (left) and my office (right).

I had absolutely no idea that I had been enjoying my lunch break in view of DC's slave pens. I have sat outside on the grass, eating and listening to live music with people hustling and bustling all around me, in and out of the L'Enfant Metro stop, all blissfully unaware that we were within spitting distance of slave pens.

This just goes to show you that history is all around you. Even if you can no longer see it, it is still there.