The D.C. Emancipation Act

April 16, 2013 is the 151st anniversary of the District of Columbia's Compensated Emancipation Act. The edict freed all those enslaved persons held in bondage in the Nation's Capital on April 16, 1862. It was a disengenuous act, a ploy to placate local slaveowners though it changed the lives of roughly 4000 enslaved individuals. Its effects rippled through the region and led the way to the general Emancipation Proclamation signed byAbraham Lincoln nine months later. And just as the advance of the Union Army into Confederate territory allowed formerly enslaved people to come into the army's camps where they often suffered and died due to the spread of disease, the Compensated Emancipation Act had unintended consequences -- some good - some bad. When word of the impending law circulated, groups of Maryland slaves entered the District of Columbia and were, in many cases, secreted in the domiciles of freed Black and White Abolitionists. Other unfortunate enslaved people were taken out of the District of Columbia and traded south by callous masters so that they would not be eligible for freedom. Opportunists also saw the chance to line their pockets by making false claims for compensation, i.e. saying they owned individuals they had no legal right to. Another cruel irony:

 "An official commission was appointed to award compensation. This commission employed a 'professional' assessor of the worth of slaves. The secretary of the Treasury reported in 1864 that slaveholders were compensated for 2,991 slave men and women, for a total of about one million dollars. "(from First Freed: Washington, D.C. In The Emancipation Era, edited by Elizabeth Clark Lewis.) One million dollars for compensating slaveholders, but nothing for the formerly enslaved or their descendants? Reparation anybody?

For me, the most stimulating part of writing historical fiction is the opportunity it gives to look deeply into the lives of the people who are the warp and weft of the American historical tapestry. I think it's valuable to bring the focus in close and consider the lives of individuals caught up in the large moments of history.

My novel, Stand The Storm, is set in Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood in this exciting, chaotic period in the nation's history. Listen to my reading of an excerpt from Stand The Storm that I believe will illuminate one consequence of this edict on a family of self-emancipated Black residents. The Coats family - Gabriel, Sewing Annie, Mary, Ellen and Gabriel and Mary's three young daughters - are thrown into turmoil when their unscrupulous former owner decides to seek compensation.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8ZJw1Rk_kY




Buy Stand The Storm, published by Little Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group USA, in all formats including on audiotape from your favorite vendor by going to this link:
http://www.breenaclarke.com/content/buy.asp

Rooty Toot

I'm happy to be tooting my own horn this week because of the spotlight on my novels.

I was recently interviewed about Civil War Washington and the African American community. On the one-hour program for the Smithsonian Channel, I shared insights I'd gained from research for my novel, Stand The Storm. I've had a chance to study 19th century African Americans and their way of life in the archives of The Mount Zion United Methodist Church, the oldest continuing African American church in the Georgetown nieghborhood of Washington.   

Mt. Zion Church is a on the National Register

the plaque out front tells the church's story

I've always received a warm welcome

my interview was conducted in the beautiful sanctuary of Mt. Zion Church
the original building was constructed by parishoners and was an important local  meeting site.  

Find your channel and get more info at:

http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/sn/show.do?show=3374628

Stand The Storm and River, Cross My Heart got good mention on The Kojo Nnamdi Show( March 21, 2013) on WAMU as fictional works that have used Washington, D.C. as a setting and a backdrop were dscussed.  It was delightful to listen to Kojo Nnamdi's familiar, creamy voice. http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2013-03-21/dc-book

Kojo's guests were:


Susan Richards Shreve, Professor, George Mason University
Anthony "Tony" Ross, Librarian, D.C Public Library; co-creator of DC By The Book
Dana Williams, Professor and Chair, Department of English, Howard University

I loved the discussion. And I love that the DC ( as in Washington, D.C., the real town) Public Library system is creating this and is finding innovative ways to thrive. When I was growing and learning in DC, one of the coolest and grandest buildings in blistering, summertime Washington was the Central Librar;y, aka Carnegie Library http://www.historydc.org/carnegielibrary.aspx, a hallowed marble palace open to the public. 

Growing up I was a regular at the neighborhood branches: Takoma & Upshur and, in high school, West End, but as a kid I rode the Georgia Avenue bus from Madison St. N.W.  all the way to 7th avenue & "K" Sts  in the days before universal bus air conditioning to experience the majestic, awe-inspiring Central Library. I always had a library card and I always had my card because I was a bigtime borrower. I would be hauling returns and would be hauling more back home.  I didn't own many books then. My parents didn't think, and rightly so, that it was necessary since the libraries were full of books and there was free access and they were open long hours and borrowing books was free as long as you were responsible to return them on time and in good order. 

It was a sweaty trip in summer. Folks getting on the bus were huffing, blowing and wiping themselves. Women waiting at the bus stops along the way past stores, past the thronging intersection at New Hampshire avenue, past Howard University, Freedmen's Hospital, the legendary Howard Theater, what was left of the Central Market, had talcum powder poofed over their breasts and necks and underarms.  When you got inside the Central Library, you got a marvelous blast of cool air off the marble staircases. Ah! That and the aroma of the books was conducive of the most deeply satisfying afternoon a youngster hooked on books could have. 


Some of my recollections of my hometown are part of Growing Up In Washington, D.C.: An Oral History, edited by Jill Connors. My younger sister, Vicki and I are the two girls on the book's cover. This photo was taken by my father as we sat at the Tidal Basin, facing the Washington monument. 

Visit the website to check out the project and see if you can add a book :


DC by the book: http://dcbythebook.org/project-book-list/page/3/