Some African-American Heritage of the Early Dupont Neighborhood
The Corner of 17th and R Streets NW Was Once Home to a Freed Slave Community, Pioneering African-American Educators, and Independent Business Owners.
This article explores only a limited number of individuals who occupied a part of a single block in the 17th Street corridor and therefore offers only a glimpse of the many, many stories of the African-Americans that helped shape our city.
By the end of the Civil War, as many as 40,000 former slaves had made their way to Washington from Maryland and Virginia. Some built settlements which were to become the foundations of later African-American neighborhoods. One of these settlements, Barry Farm, was located across the Anacostia River in southern Anacostia. Unlike Barry Farm where freedmen purchased lots from the federal government and constructed their own homes, other settlements in town were made up of renters who may have preferred to avoid long commutes to their jobs in the city.
