04/15/2026
On April 15, 1848, a remarkable scene unfolded at the wharf located at the end of 7th Street SW in Washington, DC. Throughout the night, 77 enslaved people surreptitiously boarded the schooner Pearl and secreted themselves in the ship’s hold. For those 77, it was a risk worth taking – escape from the oppression of slavery. Orchestrated by free men Paul Jennings and Paul Edmondson, among others, it was the largest slave escape attempt in U.S. history.
After midnight, Captain Daniel Drayton set sail from Washington, guiding the vessel down the Potomac River. Unfavorable wind conditions forced Drayton to drop anchor and slacken the sails shortly into their journey. At sunrise, a change in weather enabled them to resume their daring mission. About 100 miles later, they were again forced to drop anchor near Point Lookout, Maryland. Before they could get underway again, armed enslavers and volunteers aboard a steamship captured the Pearl. Its passengers and crew were shackled and paraded through the streets of DC. Many of the enslaved were sold and sent to the Deep South.
Among the 77 people who attempted to escape aboard the Pearl were 11 members of the Bell family: Mary Bell, her eight children, and two grandchildren. Daniel Bell, Mary’s husband, was a free man employed as a blacksmith in the Navy Yard. He paid Drayton $100 to take his wife and their progeny to freedom aboard the ill-fated Pearl.
Daniel was the son of Lucy Bell, born enslaved circa 1763. There are no extant records that indicate exactly when or how Bell became free from slavery, but census records show that she was free and living with some of her children in 1850. Lucy Bell and her daughter Ann are buried at Congressional Cemetery.
April 15th was a remarkable day in Bell family history. In 1840, it was the day a court of law validated Ann's years-long bid for freedom. In 1848, it was the day her brother's family boarded the Pearl with 66 other men, women, and children, hoping that a water voyage would bring them the freedom that was stolen from their ancestors on another water voyage years before. We remember them and their many fights for freedom.
