The Duke Street Slave Pen
(Now the Offices of the Urban League)
Slaves being sold to cotton
planters further south were brought into Alexandria from the countryside and
housed in the slave pen until the time for sale. After sale, they were herded to the Alexandria wharves and
shipped out in lots by steamboat. Lewis
Bailey, taken from his family and sold as a young boy walked back to Alexandria from Texas after the Civil
War to be re-united with his mother. Masters were forced to explain why contented and well cared
for servants ran away so frequently and in such large numbers. Many owners concluded that frequent runaways
were mentally imbalanced. Masters
devoted considerable energy to controlling the movement of slaves. Written passes were needed to leave the
plantation. Overseers watched the slave
quarters, slave patrols were formed, professional slave hunters were employed,
and rewards were offered.
Slave trader George Kephart went
out of business abruptly on May
24, 1861 as the Union army marched into Alexandria .
When Federal troops arrived at the slave pen on Duke Street , the pen was in complete
disarray, the sole occupant one old slave still chained to the floor.