We sometimes hear it said that slavery in the South would have died out even without the Civil War. If you read Southern newspapers right before the start of the war you are left with the opposite impression. The papers are filled with notices of sales and advertisements for the purchase of slaves. Business was good for the slave traders even though slavery only had a few years of life left. Economics did not kill slavery, war did.
Abbeville press
Friday, Dec 21, 1860
Abbeville, SC
Vol: 8
Page: 4
Independent press
Friday, Jan 20, 1860
Abbeville, SC
Vol: 7
Page: 3
Yorkville enquirer
Thursday, Dec 20, 1860
York, SC
Vol: 6
Page: 4
Register
Thursday, Nov 22, 1860
Monroe, LA
Vol: 10
Page: 3
Daily True Delta
Saturday, Nov 24, 1860
New Orleans, LA
Vol: XXIII
Issue: 6
Page: 5
Daily True Delta
Saturday, Nov 24, 1860
New Orleans, LA
Vol: XXIII
Issue: 6
Page: 5
In some ads, families were offered. Typically the father was not considered part of the family.
Augusta Chronicle
Friday, Dec 21, 1860
Augusta, GA
Page: 3
Sometimes, when a man offered to seel his farm or plantation he would also offer to seel the slaves who worked it.
Daily Constitutionalist
Sunday, Dec 23, 1860
Augusta, GA
Vol: 15
Issue: 304
Page: 4
Here is an ad for a slave seller. Note that he advertises his slave pen or jail.
North Carolina standard
Wednesday, Jan 25, 1860
Raleigh, NC
Vol: 10
Page: 2
Ads were also taken to lease slaves. Here a vulnerable “Negro girl” of 12 us sought.
Daily Journal
Wednesday, Aug 01, 1860
Wilmington, NC
Page: 3
Here is an ad for a 12 year old vicitm of family separation.
Daily Journal
Tuesday, Nov 20, 1860
Wilmington, NC
Page: 3
Here is an ad in whick a teenaged girl is offered for sale along with the estate’s oxen.
Carolina Observer
Monday, Dec 10, 1860
Fayetteville, NC
Vol: XLIII
Issue: 2271
Page: 4
One dollar in 1860 was worth about 25 dollars today.
Carolina Observer
Monday, May 21, 1860
Fayetteville, NC
Vol: XLIII
Issue: 2242
Western Democrat
Tuesday, Jul 10, 1860
Charlotte, NC
Vol: 8
Page: 2
Louisville Daily Democrat
Thursday, Aug 30, 1860
Louisville, KY
Page: 4
Here the seller is a woman.
Examiner
Wednesday, Feb 29, 1860
Frederick, MD
Page: 1
The worst day of a slave’s life was often the day the master died, not because of any love for the slaveowner, but because an estate sale would often follow. Families were inevitably broken up as husbands and wives were sold apart and children scattered to new owners. Notice that the people will be auctioned right after the furniture.
Sun
Tuesday, Jul 03, 1860
Baltimore, MD
Vol: XLVII
Issue: 40
Page: 3
St Mary’s Beacon
Thursday, Jan 12, 1860
Leonardtown, MD
Vol: 16
Page: 4
Here is an ad for a fifteen year old mother and her baby.
Sun
Tuesday, Jul 17, 1860
Baltimore, MD
Vol: XLVII
Issue: 51
Page: 2
Here is a ten year old girl being sold.
Clarksville chronicle
Friday, Feb 24, 1860
Clarksville, TN
Vol: 11
Page: 3
A sale of a young family member might take place following a court order to satisfy a dept.
Date: April 20, 1860
Location: Clarksville, Tennessee
Newspaper: Clarksville chronicle
Here the seller is the sheriff. The sale is to satisfy some type of debt. Perhaps the twelve year old was separated from her parents because the owner owed taxes on his property.
Daily Nashville patriot
Thursday, Apr 05, 1860
Nashville, TN
Vol: 22
Page: 3
The traffic in girls is extraordinary. In most of these ads there is no indication of what the buyer’s intent is in taking possession of the child.
Tri-weekly Whig
Saturday, Feb 25, 1860
Knoxville, TN
Vol: 2
Page: 5
Daily Constitutionalist
Sunday, Feb 24, 1861
Augusta, GA
Vol: 16
Issue: 47
Page: 3
Easton Gazette
Saturday, Jan 12, 1861
Easton, MD
Vol: XLIV
Issue: 1
Page: 3
Ads for slave sales on the eve of the Civil War show a thriving market in human beings. Incredibly, the buying and selling continued even during the war, including during the two years after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. If I have some time, I will put together a series on post-Emancipation slave sales.
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