On 16 April 1862, Congress passed an act abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. Owners were required to file a schedule of slaves with the court, which issued certificates of freedom. On 12 July 1862, another act permitted minor or absentee owners and slaves themselves to file for certificates of freedom. May Barber, a "brown" thirty-seven-year-old woman, belonging to Charles Wilson, seeks her freedom and that of her three-year-old son, Henry.
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Repository: National Archives, Washington, D. C.
