The Yellow House (Washington, D.C.)

[3] The Williams' slave-trading business was apparently "large and well-known to traders in Richmond and New Orleans.

"[4] The three-story building was made of brick covered in yellow-painted plaster and served as a navigation landmark for visitors to the city: "In an era before the memorials to Washington or Jefferson (much less the yet-unknown Lincoln) had been erected, D.C. travelers oriented themselves based on the Yellow House, which stood as a prominent landmark within the nation's capital.

"[1] In 1843 a column in The Liberator referenced it: "If ever you have been to Washington you have probably noticed a large yellow house which stands about a mile from the avenue near the Potomac—That is the slave prison.

One is from an account of attempting to rescue a man who had been kidnapped into slavery in 1848:[6] Your old friend, Mr. ---- and myself started for the slave pen.

As we approached, I could not but reflect that within its gloomy walls were yet retained all the horrid barbarity of the darker ages: yea, worse than this...Soon after we entered the yard, we met two men who appeared to be on patrole duty.— One of them turned round, and walked back to us, inquired if we wished to see Mr. Williams.

An air of sorrow pervades it as though the groans, the sighs, and blood of its victims were still rising from its cells, and weighing down the atmosphere with their burden of grief.

[9] A few years earlier, Solomon Northrup, a victim of kidnapping into slavery, could see the Capitol from his cell in the Williams' dungeon.