The slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished on September 20, 1850 as a provision of Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850. Because each state had its own slavery code when the District of Columbia was founded in 1800, Washington had adopted Maryland’s laws. Although the 1850 legislation made the slave trade illegal, slavery itself was still legal. Nevertheless, Washington became a haven for free blacks. By 1860, free blacks outnumbered slaves almost four-to-one. President Abraham Lincoln put an end to Washington’s slavery altogether in 1862, freeing about 2,989 African Americans who were then slaves according to the slavery code.