Print Email

Senate Plaque to Honor Slaves Who Helped Build U.S. Capitol

04.21.2009

On February 25, 2009, the Senate passed S. Res. 53, a resolution authorizing the placement of a plaque in the Senate wing of the Capitol commemorating the role of the enslaved African Americans who helped to construct the building. The Chairman and Ranking Member of the Rules Committee are original co-sponsors of the legislation that will provide for a plaque to be placed inside on the third floor of the Senate Wing of the Capitol in the East Front corridor. It will be placed near an original wall that was constructed between 1793 and 1800. The legislation authorizes the Senate Commission on Art to procure an appropriate plaque under the direction of the Rules Committee, on which both the Chairman and the Ranking member of the Rules Committee serve.

Today the marble halls of Congress are open to all Americans, but little is known about the enslaved men and women who worked as stone cutters, carpenters, masons, painters, and bricklayers over 200 hundred years ago on the U.S. Capitol. The enslaved laborers were rented by the federal government from their owners. Between 1795 and 1801, more than 380 payments were made to local slave owners for the use of their slaves. Slaves mined the stone used in constructing the section of the Capitol where this plaque will be displayed. The sandstone came from the Aquia Creek quarry in Stafford County, Virginia and the marble came from Montgomery County quarry in Maryland. Some slaves were also able to earn extra wages, which they kept themselves, by working nights, Sundays, and holidays.

This plaque will remind the countless visitors to the U.S. Capitol of the strength and courage of the African Americans who helped build the beloved symbol of our democracy.