White mobs rioted in Washington in 1848 to defend slaveholders’ rights after 76 Black enslaved people staged an unsuccessful mass escape on a boat

By: Michael David Cohen, American University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: November 9, 2025

Words: 1,079

Last Updated: 2 weeks, 1 day ago

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The summer of 2020 was not the first time America saw protests and violence over the treatment of African Americans.

Long before the demonstrations over Black Lives Matter, long before the marches of the civil rights era, strife over racism convulsed the nation’s capital. But those riots in Washington, D.C., were led by proslavery mobs.

In the spring of 1848, conspirators orchestrated one of the largest escapes from slavery in U.S. history. In doing …

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