Slave spirits of Independence Avenue — Washington D.C.'s darkest haunting

A stretch of Independence Avenue SW in Washington, D.C., near the National Mall, is said to be haunted by the spirits of enslaved people. The area was once the site of slave pens, auction houses, and holding facilities where enslaved African Americans were bought, sold, and held in the decades before the Civil War. Washington, D.C., maintained an active slave trade until 1850, and the human suffering that occurred in this area left what many believe to be a profound spiritual imprint. Visitors and workers in the area have reported hearing the sound of chains dragging on pavement, crying and moaning that seems to come from below ground level, and seeing shadowy figures in the area between the federal buildings at night. Security personnel working in the federal office buildings along Independence Avenue have described hearing voices speaking in the corridors of underground levels, and some have reported cold spots that appear suddenly and carry with them a feeling of profound anguish. The haunting is particularly poignant because the slave trade facilities were located in the shadow of the Capitol, where the laws that upheld slavery were debated and passed. The proximity of America's seat of democratic government to the site of its gravest moral failing creates a juxtaposition that makes these reported phenomena especially powerful.