Daniel Bell (freedman)

Daniel Bell (ca. 1802 – March 1877) was a formerly enslaved man who gained his freedom and then sought the freedom of his wife, Mary, and their children. Due to a series of unfortunate events, it took decades for the Bell family to obtain their freedom. Daniel and his wife had both been enslaved again after they had obtained their freedom. Two of their children who were born free were enslaved.

Bell was an organizer and fundraiser for what was called "the single largest known escape attempt by enslaved Americans", by Vincent DeFort, a Washington, D.C., resident of the National Park Service. Having been thwarted many times by the court system and their slaveholder's behavior, the Bells were prevented from attaining their freedom. Bell helped plan the use of a schooner, the Pearl, to transport his family north from Washington, D.C., in 1848. The plan expanded to carry a total of 77 fugitive slaves on the schooner. Two days after their flight, the schooner was overtaken and Bell family members were taken back to the District of Columbia and held in a slave pen for sale. Bell was able to pay for the freedom of Mary and two of his children, before the remaining children were spread out across the slave-holding states, including Louisiana and Mississippi in the Deep South.

Some of his children were never found, some were found after the Civil War, and some died by 1870. A daughter and granddaughter were freed by the Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 for residents of Washington, D.C. The Emancipation Proclamation was ratified on December 6, 1865 that made any remaining enslaved relatives free. Bell and his wife settled in Washington, D.C.