What was the status of slavery in the District of Columbia during the Civil War?

Question

I noticed that taxes aren't due until the 17th because Monday is Emancipation Day in D.C. (Ancillary question: How much is that costing us?) The slave trade was abolished in the District prior to the start of the Civil War but what about slavery itself? The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in areas of the Confederacy that fell to Union forces after the effective date of the Proclamation. Slavery continued in the border states and the liberated parts of the Confederacy. Hence my question?

Answer 1

http://www.os.dc.gov/os/cwp/view,a,1207,q,608954.asp
"April 16 has special meaning for the District of Columbia. On that day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act, For the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia. The Act freed about 3,100 enslaved persons in DC nine months before President Lincoln issued his famous Emancipation Proclamation telegraphing the eventual end of slavery to the rest of the nation. The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act represents the only example of compensation by the federal government to free enslaved persons.

Answer 2

1850 Slave trade abolished in Washington, D.C.
Bill to emancipate slaves in the District:
Passes the Senate, April 6, 1862 29 to 14
Passed the House, April 11, 1862 93 to 39
Signed by President Lincoln, April 16

National Intelligencer March 29, April 4, 7, 12, 1862
National Republican April 12, 14, 17, 18 1862

Slave Code for the District of Columbia Slavery in the United States was governed by an extensive body of law developed from the 1640s to the 1860s. Every slave state had its own slave code and body of court decisions. All slave codes made slavery a permanent condition, inherited through the mother, and defined slaves as property, usually in the same terms as those applied to real estate. Slaves, being property, could not own property or be a party to a contract. Since marriage is a form of contract, no slave marriage had any legal standing. All codes also had sections regulating free blacks, who were still subject to controls on their movements and employment and were often required to leave the state after emancipation.

The District of Columbia Emancipation Act

The District of Columbia Emancipation Act On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. Passage of this act came 9 months before President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The act brought to conclusion decades of agitation aimed at ending what antislavery advocates called "the national shame" of slavery in the nation's capital.

The law provided for immediate emancipation, compensation of up to $300 for each slave to loyal Unionist masters, voluntary colonization of former slaves to colonies outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 to each person choosing emigration. Over the next 9 months, the federal government paid almost $1 million for the freedom of approximately 3,100 former slaves.

The District of Columbia Emancipation Act is the only example of compensated emancipation in the United States. Though its three-way approach of immediate emancipation, compensation, and colonization did not serve as a model for the future, it was an early signal of slavery's death. Emancipation was greeted with great jubilation by the District's African-American community. For many years afterward, black Washingtonians celebrated Emancipation Day on April 16 with parades and festivals.

Former Slave Elizabeth Keckley and the “Contraband” of Washington DC, 1862. Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born in slavery in Virginia around 1818 and purchased her freedom in 1855. In 1862 she was living in Washington DC and working as a skilled dressmaker; her principal client was Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the president. Keckley sympathized with the former slaves, or “contraband,” as they were called, who fled to the relative safety of Washington during the Civil War. The Contraband Relief Association, which Keckley founded and headed, gathered funds and clothing for the poor former slaves. Yet, as her rather condescending remarks make clear, Keckley felt superior to the people she helped. Keckley’s memoir Behind the Scenes was published in 1868.

Answer 3

there was no slavery anywhere in the U.S.. part of the offer refused by the south before the first succesion would reinstate the slave trade in D.C.. once the war started, there was no slavery in the U.S., and D.C. was part of that.