Democracy Quest in Washington DC National Mall

You are a famous historian from Yale, tracing the 200-year-old paths of enslaved Philip Reid, who helped sculptor Thomas Crawford raise the Statue of Freedom atop Capitol’s dome. 

You know he was freed when Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act, a law that ended slavery in the District. But nothing about his origins, life during slavery, and death. 

You just got an email: “Search for the time capsule. In it are the answers about the man representing generations of African-Americans forced into bondage. Your friend from The Land of The Rising Sun.” Is this a trap or a piece of good fortune? You must find out.