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The Old Slave Mart is a building located at 6 Chalmers Street in
Old Slave Mart
Retrieved: 27 May 2010.Nenie Dixon and Elias Bull
National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Old Slave Mart
12 February 1975. Retrieved: 27 May 2010. The Old Slave Mart was originally part of a slave market known as Ryan's Slave Mart, which covered a large enclosed lot between Chalmers and Queen Streets. Charleston City Councilman Thomas Ryan established the private auction facility in 1856 after a citywide ban on public slave auctions. Slave auctions were held at the site until approximately 1863; in 1865, the Union Army occupied Charleston and closed Ryan's Mart. The Old Slave Mart Museum has operated on and off since 1938.
In 1938, Miriam B. Wilson purchased the building and established the Old Slave Mart Museum, which initially displayed African and African-American art. Wilson operated the museum on a shoestring budget until she died in 1959. Although Wilson was from Ohio, the Old Slave Mart Museum, under her ownership, embraced local beliefs that slavery had been good for African Americans. Wilson bequeathed the museum and its artifacts (mostly crafts made by enslaved African Americans) to the Charleston Museum, which declined to take them. Wilson also sold Colonial Belle Goodies and attempted to attract a broader audience to the museum.
The museum closed in 1987 due to budgeting issues. The City of Charleston and the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission restored the Old Slave Mart in the late 1990s. The museum now interprets the history of the city's slave trade. The area behind the building, which once contained the barracoon and kitchen, is now a parking lot.
In a 2018 auction, the College of Charleston purchased 47 boxes of documents from the museum's early years for $5,400 (~$ in ).
Old Slave Mart Museum
- official website
Historic Charleston's Religious and Community Buildings, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel Itinerary
Museum Grand Opening Press Release, October 2007
{{Commons category, Old Slave Mart African-American history in Charleston, South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Charleston, South Carolina Museums in Charleston, South Carolina History museums in South Carolina African-American museums in South Carolina History of slavery in South Carolina History of auctions 19th-century in Charleston, South Carolina Slave jails in the United States
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...
that once housed an antebellum-period slave
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
-auction gallery. Constructed in 1859, the building is believed to be the last extant slave auction facility in South Carolina. In 1975, the Old Slave Mart was added to the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
for its role in Charleston's African American history. Today, the building houses the Old Slave Mart Museum.National Conference of State Historic Preservation OfficersOld Slave Mart
Retrieved: 27 May 2010.Nenie Dixon and Elias Bull
National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Old Slave Mart
12 February 1975. Retrieved: 27 May 2010. The Old Slave Mart was originally part of a slave market known as Ryan's Slave Mart, which covered a large enclosed lot between Chalmers and Queen Streets. Charleston City Councilman Thomas Ryan established the private auction facility in 1856 after a citywide ban on public slave auctions. Slave auctions were held at the site until approximately 1863; in 1865, the Union Army occupied Charleston and closed Ryan's Mart. The Old Slave Mart Museum has operated on and off since 1938.
Design
The Old Slave Mart is a by brick structure with astucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
ed façade. The front (south side) faces the cobblestone-paved Chalmers Street. The building originally measured by , but an extension in 1922 gave it its current dimensions. The unique façade of the Old Slave Mart consists of octagonal pillars at each end, with a central elliptical arch comprising the entrance.
The building initially contained one large room with a ceiling. In 1878, a second floor was added, and the roof was overhauled. The arched entryway initially held an iron gate; in the late 1870s, it was filled with simple doors. Interior partitions were added in subsequent decades, dividing the first floor into three rooms. Today, an iron gate is in the archway again.
History
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, enslaved people brought into Charleston were sold at public auctions held on the north side of the Exchange and Provost building. After the city prohibited ''public'' slave auctions in 1856, Charlestonians established enclosed slave markets along Chalmers, State, and Queen streets. One such market was Ryan's Mart, established by city councilman and broker Thomas Ryan and his business partner James Marsh. Ryan's Mart originally consisted of a closed lot with three structures — a four-story barracoon or slave jail, a kitchen, and a morgue or "dead house." In 1859, an auction master named Z. B. Oakes purchased Ryan's Mart and built the Old Slave Mart building as an auction gallery. The building's auction table was high and long and stood just inside the arched doorway. In addition to enslaved people, the market sold real estate andstock
Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...
. Slave auctions at Ryan's Mart were advertised in broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of in height. Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper ...
s throughout the 1850s, some appearing as far away as Galveston, Texas
Galveston ( ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a pop ...
.
When U.S. Army forces occupied Charleston beginning in February 1865, the people Ryan's Mart still enslaved were freed.
In 1878, the Old Slave Mart was converted into a tenement dwelling, with a second floor added. A car dealership and showroom operated in the building in the 1920s, which expanded the rear of the building.
Transition into a museum
In 1938, Miriam B. Wilson purchased the building and established the Old Slave Mart Museum, which initially displayed African and African-American art. Wilson operated the museum on a shoestring budget until she died in 1959. Although Wilson was from Ohio, the Old Slave Mart Museum, under her ownership, embraced local beliefs that slavery had been good for African Americans. Wilson bequeathed the museum and its artifacts (mostly crafts made by enslaved African Americans) to the Charleston Museum, which declined to take them. Wilson also sold Colonial Belle Goodies and attempted to attract a broader audience to the museum.
The museum closed in 1987 due to budgeting issues. The City of Charleston and the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission restored the Old Slave Mart in the late 1990s. The museum now interprets the history of the city's slave trade. The area behind the building, which once contained the barracoon and kitchen, is now a parking lot.
In a 2018 auction, the College of Charleston purchased 47 boxes of documents from the museum's early years for $5,400 (~$ in ).
See also
* Old Charleston Jail * Exchange and Provost * Antebellum South Carolina *Slave trade in the United States
The internal slave trade in the United States, also known as the domestic slave trade, the Second Middle Passage and the interregional slave trade, was the mercantile trade of enslaved people within the United States. It was most significant af ...
* Slave markets and slave jails in the United States
References
External links
Old Slave Mart Museum
- official website
Historic Charleston's Religious and Community Buildings, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel Itinerary
Museum Grand Opening Press Release, October 2007
{{Commons category, Old Slave Mart African-American history in Charleston, South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Charleston, South Carolina Museums in Charleston, South Carolina History museums in South Carolina African-American museums in South Carolina History of slavery in South Carolina History of auctions 19th-century in Charleston, South Carolina Slave jails in the United States