Slave markets and slave jails in the United States were places used for the

slave trade in the United States The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Slave ...

from the founding in 1776 until the total abolition of slavery in 1865. ''Slave pens'', also known as slave jails, were used to temporarily hold enslaved people until they were sold, or to hold

fugitive slaves In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called freed ...

, and sometimes even to "board" slaves while traveling. Slave markets were any place where sellers and buyers gathered to make deals. Some of these buildings had dedicated slave jails, others were ''negro marts'' to showcase the slaves offered for sale, and still others were general auction or market houses where a wide variety of business was conducted, of which "negro trading" was just one part. Slave trading was often done in business clusters where many trading firms operated in close proximity. Such clusters existed on specific streets (such as Pratt Street in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, Adams Street in

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

, or Cherry Street in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

), in specific neighborhoods (in the American Quarter in New Orleans, and at

Shockoe Bottom Shockoe Bottom (also known historically as Shockoe Valley) is an area in Richmond, Virginia, just east of downtown, along the James River. Located between Shockoe Hill and Church Hill, Shockoe Bottom contains much of the land included in Colone ...

in Richmond), or in settlements seemingly dedicated to serving planters seeking new agricultural laborers (such as Forks of the Road market in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, ...

, and at

Hamburg, S.C. Hamburg, South Carolina is a ghost town in Aiken County, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was once a thriving upriver market located across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia in the Edgefield District. It was founded by Henry Shult ...

, across the river from

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georg ...

). Many thousands of other sales took place on the steps of county courthouses (to satisfy judgments, estates and claims), on large plantations, or anywhere else there was a slave owner who needed cash in order to settle a debt or pay off a bad bet. A slave market could operate without a dedicated jail, and a jail could operate without an associated market. For example, the

St. Louis Hotel The St. Louis Hotel was built in 1838 at the corner of St. Louis and Chartres Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally it was referred to as the City Exchange Hotel. A hotel exists in the same place today but with a different n ...

in New Orleans, and the

Artesian Basin An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure. An artesian aquifer has trapped water, surrounded by layers of impermeable rock or clay, which apply positive pressure to the water contained within the ...

in Montgomery, Alabama, were important slave markets not known for their prison facilities. A number of slave jails in the Upper South were used for holding people until slave traders had enough for a shipment south, but were only rarely the site of slave sales, in part because the profit for the trader was sure to be higher in the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...

, closer to the labor-hungry plantations of the cotton and sugar districts.

History

Dedicated marts, depots, and lockups were by no means ubiquitous, but the slave trade itself was: "The slave trade took place in nearly every town and city in the South. In most, however, the trade did not have a permanent physical location. Commonly, slaves were sold on court days, usually outdoors at a location near the courthouse, yet those cities with a large slave market had a significant infrastructure dedicated to the buying and selling of humans."

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Donaldsonville Donaldsonville (historically french: Lafourche-des-Chitimachas) is a city in, and the parish seat of Ascension Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located along the River Road of the west bank of the Mississippi River, it is a part of the Ba ...

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

, and

East Baton Rouge East Baton Rouge Parish (french: Paroisse de Bâton Rouge Est) is the most populous parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2010 U.S. census, its population was 440,171, and 456,781 at the 2020 census. The parish seat is Baton Rouge, ...

in Louisiana; at Natchez,

Vicksburg Vicksburg most commonly refers to: * Vicksburg, Mississippi, a city in western Mississippi, United States * The Vicksburg Campaign, an American Civil War campaign * The Siege of Vicksburg, an American Civil War battle Vicksburg is also the name of ...

, and

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

in Mississippi; at every roadside tavern, county courthouse, and crossroads across the Lower South." Slave traders traveled to farms and small towns to buy enslaved people to bring to market. Slave owners also delivered people they wanted to dispense with. Enslaved people were placed in pens to await being sold, and they could become quite crowded. In New Orleans, most sales were made between September and May. Buyers visited the slave pen and inspected enslaved people prior to the sale. People were held until their means of transportation was arranged. They were transported in groups by boat, walked to their new owners, or a combination of the two. They were moved in groups in a

coffle A coffle was a group of enslaved people chained together and marched from one place to another by owners or slave traders. History In the Antebellum South, slave traders such as Franklin and Armfield arbitraged slave prices by purchasing slaves a ...

. This meant that people were chained together with iron rings around their necks which were fastened with wooden or iron bars. Men on horseback herded the groups, or coffles, to their destination. They used dogs, guns, and whips. Railroads brought a new, simpler means of travel that did not rely on the use of coffles. In some cases, slave traders, like

Franklin and Armfield Office The Franklin and Armfield Office, which houses the Freedom House Museum, is a historic commercial building in Alexandria, Virginia ( until 1846, the District of Columbia). Built c. 1810–20, it was first used as a private residence before bein ...

, had a network of slave depots that were located along their routes. Circa 1833, an Appalachian newspaper complained about the slave traders traveling through the region with coffles, and reported that private jails had been built by slave traders at Baltimore, Washington,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...

, and near Fredericksburg. According to ''Nile's Weekly Register'' of Baltimore in the 1840s, "The procurement of from fifty to three hundred slaves is a work of days, sometimes of weeks or months. Many plantations must be visited by the trader and his agents. Then a variety of circumstances occasions necessary delays, before the gang can be put in motion for the south. During this period the slaves are secured by handcuffs, fetters, and chains, and put into some place of confinement. The national prison at Washington city, and the state prisons, are prostituted to this use when occasion requires. The more extensive slave-dealers have private prisons constructed expressly for this purpose." Lumpkin's Jail, the largest in the state of Virginia, was a particularly inhumane place that resulted in people dying of starvation, illness, or beating. They were so cramped that they were sometimes on top of one another. There were no toilet facilities. Swedish writer

Fredrika Bremer Fredrika Bremer (17 August 1801 – 31 December 1865) was a Finnish-born Swedish writer and feminist reformer. Her ''Sketches of Everyday Life'' were wildly popular in Britain and the United States during the 1840s and 1850s and she is r ...

described slave pens she saw on her travels in America as "great garrets without beds, chairs or tables." Per

Frederic Bancroft Frederic Bancroft (October 30, 1860, in Galesburg, Illinois – February 22, 1945) was an American historian, author, and librarian. The Bancroft Prize, one of the most distinguished academic awards in the field of history, was established at Co ...

, "As a rule, in all such places, the floor was the only bed, a dirty blanket was the only covering, a miscellaneous bundle the only pillow. A 1928 history described jail cells built on the Maryland farm of trader

George Kephart George Kephart (February 7, 1811August 26, 1888) was a 19th-century American slave trader, land owner, farmer, and philanthropist. A native of Maryland, he was an agent of the interstate trading firm Franklin & Armfield early in his career, and ...

: "...Mr. Kephart was probably the largest slavedealer in the county. He had two underground jails built where he kept the unruly, as well as a brick jail above ground." Suppressed - The coffle gang

A negro mart was usually a type of urban retail market, usually consisting of a dedicated showroom and/or a workyard, a jail, and storerooms or kitchens for food. Negro marts were urban "clearinghouses" that both acquired enslaved people from more rural districts and sold people for use as farm, skilled, or domestic labor. The term ''negro mart'' was most commonly used in Charleston, South Carolina, but can also be found in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...

, multiple locations in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

, et al. In the 1850s, future Confederate military leader

Nathan Bedford Forrest Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821October 29, 1877) was a prominent Confederate Army general during the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867 to 1869. Before the war, Forrest amassed substantial wealth ...

operated a heavily advertised negro mart on Adams Street in Memphis. In January 1860, the ''New York Times'' reported that the Forrest & Jones negro mart in Memphis had collapsed and caught fire; two people died but the bills of sale for people, "amounting in the aggregate to " were salvaged. A description of "the negro mart of

Poindexter & Little Poindexter & Little was a 19th-century American slave-trading company with operations in Tennessee and Louisiana. The principals were likely Thomas B. Poindexter, John J. Poindexter, Montgomery Little, William Little, Chauncey Little, and Benjam ...

" in New Orleans, Louisiana states: "In this mart the Negroes were classified and seated on benches, as goods are arranged on shelves in a well-regulated store. The cooks, mechanics, farm-hands, house-girls, seamstresses, washwomen, barbers, and boys each had their own place." During the Civil War,

Gideon J. Pillow Gideon Johnson Pillow (June 8, 1806 – October 8, 1878) was an American lawyer, politician, speculator, slaveowner, United States Army major general of volunteers during the Mexican–American War and Confederate brigadier general in the Ameri ...

wrote a complaint letter to the effect that U.S. Army troops had robbed him of his slaves, and killed or jailed his overseers; he wanted someone to check if the women and children, particularly, were "confined in the Ware house or Negro Mart." It was not uncommon to hold sales or auctions outdoors in the pre-

air-conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

South; the plaza north of the Charleston Exchange may be the most enduring and notable of these locations. Similarly, rather than depending on candles, kerosene, whale oil, or gaslights, the noon-to-three trading hours of the St. Louis Hotel in New Orleans probably took advantage of the brightest hours of natural light through the rotunda windows. Outdoor slave markets were sometimes controversial. Charleston banned outdoor sales in 1856 and the traders protested that the ban might subtly send a message that there was something wrong with buying and selling people. And in 1837 a correspondent named D wrote to the ''

New Orleans Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

'' complaining of being inconvenienced by the "practice which has been recently adopted by negro traders, I know not who, of parading their slaves for sale, on the narrow ''trottoir'' in front of the City Hotel, Common street...I have very frequently found much difficulty in making my way through the rank and file of men, women and children, there daily exhibited."

After slavery

1854_survey_map_excerpt_Cli-forks-of-the-road_page_63

The ''Smithsonian'' magazine states that " ese were sites of brutal treatment and unbearable sorrow, as callous and avaricious slave traders tore apart families, separating husbands from wives, and children from their parents." During the Civil War, slave pens were used by the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

to imprison Confederate soldiers. For instance, slave pens were used for this purpose in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, whic ...

and

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

. In Natchez, Mississippi, the Forks of the Road slave market was used by the Union soldiers to offer the formerly enslaved protection and freedom. In 2021 the site was made part of the

Natchez National Historical Park Natchez National Historical Park commemorates the history of Natchez, Mississippi, and is managed by the National Park Service. The park consists of four separate sites: Fort Rosalie is the site of a former fortification from the 18th century, ...

. Old slave pens were also repurposed for worship and education. In Lexington, Kentucky,

Lewis Robards Lewis Robards (December 5, 1758April 15, 1814) was an American Revolutionary War veteran and Kentucky pioneer who is best remembered as the first husband of Rachel Jackson, who was later married to Andrew Jackson, elected U.S. president in 182 ...

' slave jail was used as a Congregational church by African Americans. A freedmen's seminary, now

Virginia Union University Virginia Union University is a private historically black Baptist university in Richmond, Virginia. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. History The American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) founded the school as Rich ...

, was established in Lumpkin's Jail. Known as the "devil's half acre", a founder of the seminary

James B. Simmons James B. Simmons (c. 1827 – December 17, 1905), was a minister and abolitionist during the Antebellum period. He served as a Baptist minister in Providence, Rhode Island; Indianapolis, Indiana; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and New York City. ...

said that it would now be "God's half acre". A site formerly called

A. Bryan's Negro Mart The John Montmollin Warehouse (also known as the John Montmollin Building) is a building in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located on Barnard Street in the northwestern civic block of Ellis Square, in Savannah's City Market. It was con ...

in Georgia, was commandeered by the U.S. military at the conclusion of the Civil War. It was later described as having four stars on the sign out front; the windows of the upper stories had iron grates, and among the abandoned detritus were "bills of sale for slaves by the hundreds," business correspondence, "handcuffs, whips, and staples for tying, etc." The building turned into a school for formerly enslaved children.

Notable markets and jails

This is a list of notable buildings, structures, and landmarks (etc.), that were used in the

. *

(outdoor sales), Montgomery, Alabama * Bar-room of the St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans * Brown's Speculator House (slave jail?), Montgomery, Ala. *

Bruin's Slave Jail Bruin's Slave Jail is a two-story brick building in Alexandria, Virginia, from which slave trader Joseph Bruin imprisoned slaves. Bruin's company, called Bruin and Hill, transported captured Africans to slave markets in the Southern United Sta ...

Cheapside Park Cheapside Park was a block in downtown Lexington, Kentucky between Upper Street and Mill Street. Cheapside, originally Public Square, was the town's main marketplace in the nineteenth century and included a large slave market before the Civil Wa ...

, Lexington, Kentucky * Charleston Exchange (outdoor sales, plaza north of building) *

Forks of the Road Market The Forks of the Road Market was a slave market in Natchez, Mississippi. It was largely developed by John Armfield and Isaac Franklin, who in 1833 capitalized on the difference in slave prices in the middle Atlantic states of Virginia and Maryland ...

, Natchez, Mississippi *

Forrest's jail Forrest's jail, also known as Forrest's Traders Yard, was the Slave markets and slave jails in the United States, slave pen owned and operated by Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Forrest bought 87 Adams Street, lo ...

, Memphis *

, Alexandria * John Montmollin Warehouse, Savannah * Lumpkin's Jail, Richmond *

Lynch's slave pen Lynch's slave pen was a 19th-century slave pen, or slave jail, in the city of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States, that held slavery in the United States, enslaved men, women, and children while they waited to be sold. Bernard M. Lynch, a prominen ...

, St. Louis *

Mason County, Kentucky slave pen The Mason County, Kentucky slave pen played a very important role in the American slave trade, confining slaves who were intended to go farther south for sale. This slave pen was recovered from a farm in Mason County, Kentucky, United States, wh ...

Nashville Market House While the biggest slave market in the state was along the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, land routes connecting Nashville to the ports at New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi, sufficed to deliver human ...

Old Market (Louisville, Georgia) The Old Market is a historic open-air structure in the middle of Louisville, Georgia. It was built around 1795 during the period when this town was the capital of Georgia. It was entered into the National Register of Historic Places on February 17 ...

Old Slave Market, St. Augustine The Historic Public Market, historically known as the Old Slave Market, Old Spanish Market or Public Market is a historic open-air market building in St. Augustine, Florida in the United States. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was fr ...

(disputed) *

Old Slave Mart The Old Slave Mart is a building located at 6 Chalmers Street in Charleston, South Carolina that once housed an antebellum period slave auction gallery. Constructed in 1859, the building is believed to be the last extant slave auction facility in ...

, Charleston * , New Orleans *

Slave Auction Block, Fredericksburg The Slave Auction Block in Fredericksburg, Virginia is a large stone that was used as an auction block in historical slave auctions. It was located on the corner of William Street and Charles Street, and is listed on the National Register of His ...

, New Orleans *

The Cage The Cage may refer to: Sports * West Fourth Street Courts, also known as "The Cage", as of 1978, a public venue for amateur basketball in New York City * Al-Shorta Stadium, 1990-2014, former football stadium of Al-Shorta SC, nicknamed "The Cage ...

, Richmond *

Woodroof's jail Seth Woodroof (August 4, 1875) was a slave trader based in Lynchburg in central Virginia, United States. He was an interstate trader who ran what the Lynchburg Museum called the "most active and infamous" slave pen in the city. He is believed ...

, Lynchburg, Va. *

Woolfolk's jail Austin Woolfolk (1796–1847) was an American slave trader. Among the busiest slave traders in Maryland, he trafficked more than 2,000 enslaved people through the port of Baltimore to the port of New Orleans, and became notorious in time for selli ...

, Baltimore *

The Yellow House ''The Yellow House'' ( nl, Het gele huis), alternatively named ''The Street'' ( nl, De straat), is an 1888 oil painting by the 19th-century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. The house was the right wing of 2 Place Lamartine, Ar ...

, Washington, D.C.

References

External links

* * *
A slave pen journey

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a museum in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, based on the history of the Underground Railroad. Opened in 2004, the Center also pays tribute to all efforts to "abolish human enslavement and secure f ...

, Cincinnati * {{commons category, Slave pens in the United States Antebellum architecture * Economic history of the United States Lists of buildings and structures in the United States Pre-emancipation African-American history Slavery in the United States Slave trade in the United States 19th-century architecture in the United States

History

After slavery

Notable markets and jails

See also

References

External links