Slave Pens at Alexandria: Enslaved People Imprisoned within Sight of the Capitol

The largest slave trading complex in the upper South operated in Alexandria, Virginia, within sight of the U.S. Capitol. The Franklin and Armfield compound held enslaved people in prisonlike conditions with brick walls, barred windows, and separate male and female yards while they awaited sale or transport south. Visitors to Washington D.C. could see coffles of enslaved people marched past the Capitol building. The pens were still operating in 1861; Union forces used the building as a prison during the Civil War.