It also provided for a three-person commission to appraise claims by slave owners for any slaves set free—limiting their allowance in the aggregate to $300 per slave. Congress appropriated $1 million to pay slave owners and added another $100,000 to pay them an additional $100 per slave for those who chose to immigrate to Liberia or Haiti. Charles Sumner hailed the bill, and the prospect of its speedy adoption, with “unspeakable delight.” It was only a “small installment” of the debt the United States owed to the enslaved people within its borders, Sumner pointed out, yet it would be
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