Zone1 How a Grad Student Uncovered the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S.

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

This is of particular interest to me because it is known that we are descended from one of the plantations in the Charleston area, the Middleton Place.
How a Grad Student Uncovered the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S.

Lauren Davila, then a graduate student at the College of Charleston, found the largest known slave auction while searching archives of classified ads.

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Sitting at her bedroom desk, nursing a cup of coffee on a quiet Tuesday morning, Lauren Davila scoured digitized old newspapers for slave auction ads. A graduate history student at the College of Charleston, she logged them on a spreadsheet for an internship assignment. It was often tedious work.

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She clicked on Feb. 24, 1835, another in a litany of days on which slave trading fueled her home city of Charleston, South Carolina. But on this day, buried in a sea of classified ads for sales of everything from fruit knives and candlesticks to enslaved human beings, Davila made a shocking discovery.​

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On page 3, fifth column over, 10th advertisement down, she read:​

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“This day, the 24th instant, and the day following, at the North Side of the Custom-House, at 11 o’clock, will be sold, a very valuable GANG OF NEGROES, accustomed to the culture of rice; consisting of SIX HUNDRED.”​

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She stared at the number: 600.​

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A sale of 600 people would mark a grim new record — by far.​

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Until Davila’s discovery, the largest known slave auction in the U.S. was one that was held over two days in 1859 just outside Savannah, Georgia, roughly 100 miles down the Atlantic coast from Davila’s home. At a racetrack just outside the city, an indebted plantation heir sold hundreds of enslaved people. The horrors of that auction have been chronicled in books and articles, including The New York Times’ 1619 Project and “The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History.” Davila grabbed her copy of the latter to double-check the number of people auctioned then.​

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It was 436, far fewer than the 600 in the ad glowing on her computer screen​

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story continued here: How a Grad Student Uncovered the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S.​

 

[Yarddog]

Im not seeing the link take me to a story, just an add piece for the resort

 

[excalibur]

And?

 

[MarathonMike]

I think I read somewhere that America had slaves a long, long time ago.

 

[Augustine_]

This is of particular interest to me because it is known that we are descended from one of the plantations in the Charleston area, the Middleton Place.

Careful, it's dangerous to spread this type of information in some parts of our country now

 

[Rawley]

I think I read somewhere that America had slaves a long, long time ago.

Nope. Didnya hear? Teaching of slavery has been banned in the US. They now skip from 1776 to 1980 when Regan was elected.

 

[Dekster]

This is of particular interest to me because it is known that we are descended from one of the plantations in the Charleston area, the Middleton Place.

Guess they brought in a bunch for the spring planting season. Never really thought about it before, but it would make sense to have seasons for slave sales.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Im not seeing the link take me to a story, just an add piece for the resort

Sorry, the hyperlink is at the bottom of the article but I copied it to the top as well.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Guess they brought in a bunch for the spring planting season. Never really thought about it before, but it would make sense to have seasons for slave sales.

One of the owners passed away and the sale was part of an estate sale/auction presumably to pay off some of their debt.