Michael Shiner
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Michael G. Shiner was an African-American Navy Yard worker and diarist who chronicled events in Washington D.C. for more than 60 years, first as a slave and later as a free man. His diary is the earli
A coffle of enslaved men in front of the US Capitol in the 1830s
First page of Michael Shiner's Diary, p. 1. 1813.Library of Congress. Militia officer, Lloyd Pumphrey was related to slaveholder William Pumphrey, who first placed Shiner at the navy yard. Thomas Howard was an officer in the District of Columbia militia and "clerk of the yard" In 1828 Howard purchased Shiner for $250.00 as "term slave" from William Pumphrey's estate.
William Pumphrey Sept 8 1828 sale of "Negro Michael" Shiner to Thomas Howard for $250.00
An early illustration of the Washington Navy Yard
James Hoban Jr.
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James Hoban Jr. was an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia in the 1840s.
Michael Shiner
…pursued his own freedom. On 26 March 1836 in the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia he filed a petition for freedom with the help of attorney James Hoban Jr., declaring that he was "unjustly, and illegally held in bondage" by the executors of Thomas Howard's estate, Ann Nancy Howard and William E. Howard…
1846 lithograph of Hoban by Albert Newsam
1836 freedom petition signed by Hoban for Michael Shiner
Purported portrait of Marion Blackwell French by Thomas Sully