The History Hat - John Wesley Cromwell Residence - From Enslavement to DC Lawyer

Video

Step inside the former residence of an emancipated slave turned scholar, publisher, and lawyer: John Wesley Cromwell.

Transcript:

Hello History Hatters!

To continue to celebrate African-American history month, We're venturing just short of Dupont Circle into the 14th Street Historic District.

Today, we'll learn more about a man born into slavery in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1846.

His name: John Wesley Cromwell.

In 1871 Cromwell moved to Washington to attend law school at Howard University.

His legacy and contributions to Washington earned him this historical marker

In front of his former residence at 1439 Swan Street Northwest.

Let's step inside.

Welcome Marc, good to see you. I haven't seen you since Grant was a cadet.

Come in the house. I'm sorry my husband Brian is not here this afternoon to help give you the tour of the historic John Wesley Cromwell house.

Me too.

I'm looking forward to talking with you.

Great.

Ken showed me around his wonderfully decorated home

This is the former residence John Wesley Cromwell, a very prominent resident of the District of Columbia in the late 1800s.

Figures on one of his shelves caught my eye.

I love your penguin collection. Oh, thanks.

You know obviously, I don't know how Mr. Cromwell would have decorated his house but we're not exactly minimalists.

We have lots of things. Penguins, in particular, are a very special thing to my husband, Brian.

He has always loved penguins since he was a little boy.

The multicolored penguins in the middle, I had them engraved on the bottom.

I proposed to him by handing them the engraved Penguins on Christmas morning asking him if he would marry me, so they're kind of special to us.

Ken Patterson, an attorney himself, sat down to share more about John Wesley Cromwell.

He was born into slavery in Portsmouth Virginia. His dad, while enslaved, was a ferry operator over the Elizabeth River and was allowed to keep some of his wages. He then saved money and bought his entire family, at 12 children, John Wesley Cromwell was the youngest, he bought his family out of slavery and they moved to the Philadelphia area.

John Wesley Cromwell attended schools in that area and focused early on in his career on education. He taught, he taught at various schools in the area and when

he was around 25 he moved to the District of Columbia and enrolled in the what was called the law department of Howard University. He was the first black lawyer to appear before the Interstate Commerce Commission.

He worked in a number of different jobs as an attorney. He also later in his life he wrote a great deal. He was a prolific writer. He published a series a periodical called "The People's Advocate."

He also was recognized as a great thinker about the African-American experience of the time.

If you read his CV it's hard to figure out how he did this many things, but they're all documented.

And the plaque outside Cromwell's former residence prompts us to recognize his distinguished contributions and remarkable life journey.

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