Until the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863, weekly auctions of enslaved black persons were held in the house's backyard, now a wedding venue.

It is also one of the only surviving pieces of physical evidence that African Americans were once held "in bondage [within] sight of the White House.

In order, these were Vice President George M. Dallas, publisher and former Mayor of Washington Joseph Gales, Congressmen and brothers John A.

[8] Beale's daughter-in-law, Marie, bequeathed Decatur House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1956.

Among the stories is that of Charlotte Dupuy, who in 1829 sued her master Henry Clay, then Secretary of State, for her freedom and that of her two children.