Warning! This article was written in 1859. It contains language that is considered unacceptable today.
As properly part of the history of the war, the following New York Tribune’s account of this sale is valuable. It was found among Abby’s papers, dated March 9th, 1859:
A GREAT SLAVE AUCTION.
400 MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN SOLD.
“The largest sale of human chattels that has been made in Star-Spangled America for several years took place on Wednesday and Thursday of last week at the Race Course, near the City of Savannah, Georgia. The lot consisted of four hundred and thirty-six men, women, children and infants, being that half of the negro stock remaining on the old Major Butler plantations which fell to one of the two heirs to that estate — Mr. Pierce M. Butler, still living and resident in the city of Philadelphia, in the free state of Pennsylvania. They were, in fact, sold to pay Mr. Pierce M. Butler’s debts.
“The sale had been advertised largely for many weeks, and as the negroes were known to be a choice lot and very desirable property, the attendance of buyers was large. Little parties were made up from the various hotels every day to visit the Race Course, distant some three miles from the city, to look over the chattels, discuss their points, and make memoranda for guidance on the day of sale. The buyers were generally of a rough breed, slangy, profane and bearish, being, for the most part, from the back river and swamp plantations where the elegancies of polite life are not, perhaps, developed to their fullest extent.
“The negroes were brought to Savannah in small lots, as many at a time as could be conveniently taken care of, the last of them reaching the city the Friday before the sale. They were consigned to the care of Mr. J. Bryan, auctioneer and negro broker, who was to feed and keep them in condition until disposed of. Immediately on their arrival they were taken to the Race Course and there quartered in the sheds erected for the accommodation of the horses and carriages of gentlemen attending the races. Into these sheds they were huddled pell-mell, without any more attention to their comfort than was necessary to prevent their becoming ill and unsalable.
“The chattels were huddled together on the floor, there being no sign of bench or table. They eat and slept on the bare boards, their food being rice and beans, with occasionally a bit of bacon and corn bread. Their huge bundles were scattered over the floor, and thereon the slaves sat or reclined, when not restlessly moving about or gathered into sorrowful groups discussing the chances of their future fate. On the faces of all was an expression of heavy grief.
“The negroes were examined with as little consideration as if they had been brutes; the buyers pulling their mouths open to see their teeth, pinching their limbs to find how muscular they were, walking them up and down to detect any signs of lameness, making them stoop and bend in different ways that they might be certain there was no concealed rupture or wound.
“The following curiously sad scene is the type of a score of others that were there enacted:
“ ‘Elisha,’ chattel No. 5 in the catalogue, had taken a fancy to a benevolent-looking middle-aged gentleman who was inspecting the stock, and thus used his powers of persuasion to induce the benevolent man to purchase him, with his wife, boy, and girl. ‘Look at me, Mas’r; am prime rice planter; sho’ you won’t find a better man den me; no better on de whole plantation; not a bit old yet; do mo’ work den ever; do carpenter work, too, little; better buy me, Mas’r; I’se be good sarvant, Mas’r. Molly, too, my wife, Sa, fus rate rice hand; mos as good as me. Stan’ out yer, Molly, and let the gen’lem’n see.’”
“Molly advances, with her hands crossed on her bosom, and makes a quick, short curtsy and stands mute, looking appealingly in the benevolent man’s face. But Elisha talks all the faster. ‘Show Mas’r yer arm, Molly —good arm dat, Mas’r—she do a heap of work mo’ with dat arm yet. Let good Mas’r see yer teeth, Molly—see dat, Mas’r, teeth all reg’lar, all good —she’m young gal yet. Come out yer Israel; walk aroun’ an’ let the gen’lm’n see how spry you be’—
“Then, pointing to the three-year-old girl who stood with her chubby hand to her mouth, holding on to her Mother’s dress and uncertain what to make of the strange scene,— ‘Little Vardy’s on’y a chile yet; make prime gal by and by. Better buy us, Mas’r; we’m fus’ rate bargain ‘— and so on. But the benevolent gentleman found where he could drive a closer bargain, and so bought somebody else.
“In the intervals of more active labor the discussion of the re-opening of the slave-trade was commenced, and the opinion seemed to generally prevail that the reestablishment of the said trade is a consummation devoutly to be wished, and one red-faced Major, or General, or Corporal, clenched his remarks with the emphatic assertion that ‘We’ll have all the niggers in Africa over here in three years—we won’t leave enough for seed.’
“One huge brute of a man, who had not taken an active part in the discussion save to assent with approving nod to any unusually barbarous proposition, at last broke his silence by saying in an oracular way ‘You may say what you like about managing niggers; I’m a driver myself, and I’ve had some experience, and I ought to know. You can manage ordinary niggers by lickin’ ‘em and given’ em a taste of the hot iron once in a while when they’re extra ugly; but if a nigger really sets himself up against me I can’t never have any patience with him. I just get my pistol and shoot him right down; and that’s the best way.’
“The family of Primus, plantation carpenter, consisting of Daphney his wife, with her young babe, and Dido a girl of three years old, were reached in due course of time. Daphney had a large shawl, which she kept carefully wrapped around her infant and herself. This unusual proceeding attracted much attention, and provoked many remarks, such as these:
“ ‘What do you keep your nigger covered up fer? Pull off her blanket!’
“ ‘What’s the fault of the gal? Ain’t she sound? Pull off her rags and let us see her!’
“ ‘Who’s going to bid on that nigger, if you keep her covered up? Let’s see her face!’
“At last the auctioneer obtained a hearing long enough to explain that there was no attempt to practice any deception in the case—the parties were not to be wronged in any way; he had no desire to palm off on them an inferior article, but the truth of the matter was that Daphney had been confined only fifteen days ago, and he thought that on that account she was entitled to the slight indulgence of a blanket, to keep from herself and child the chill air and the driving rain.
“Since her confinement, Daphney had travelled from the plantations to Savannah, where she had been kept in a shed for six days. On the sixth or seventh day after her sickness she had left her bed, taken a railroad journey across the country to the shambles, was there exposed for six days to the questionings and insults of the negro speculators, and then on the fifteenth day after her confinement was put up on the block with her husband and her other child, and, with her new-born baby in her arms, was sold to the highest bidder.
“It was very considerate in Daphneey; to be sick before the sale, for her wailing babe was worth to Mr. Butler all of a hundred dollars. The family sold for $625 apiece, or $2,500 for the four.
“There were some thirty babies in the lot; they are esteemed worth to the master a hundred dollars the day they are born and to increase in value at the rate of a hundred dollars a year till they are sixteen or seventeen years old, at which age they bring the best prices.
“Jeffrey, chattel No. 319, being human in his affections, had dared to cherish a love for Dorcas, chattel No. 278; and Dorcas, not having the fear of her master before her eyes, had given her heart to Jeffrey.
“Jeffrey was sold. He finds out his new master; and, hat in hand, the big tears standing in his eyes and his voice trembling with emotion, he stands before that master and tells his simple story:
“ ‘I loves Dorcas, young Mas’r; I loves her well an’ true; she says she loves me, and I know she does; de good Lord knows I love her better than I loves any one in de wide world — never can love another woman half so well. Please buy Dorcas, Mas’r. We’ll be good sarvants to you long as we live. We’re be married right soon, young Mas’r, and de chillun will be healthy and strong, Mas’r, and dey’ll be good sarvants, too. Please buy Dorcas, young Mas’r. We loves each other a heap—do, really, true, Mas’r.’
“At last comes the trying moment, and Dorcas steps up on the stand.
“But now a most unexpected feature in the drama is for the first time unmasked; Dorcas is not to be sold alone, but with a family of four others. Full of dismay Jeffrey looks to his master who shakes his head, for, although he might be induced to buy Dorcas alone, he has no use for the rest of the family. Jeffrey reads his doom in his master’s look, and turns away, the tears streaming down his honest face.
“And tomorrow Jeffrey and Dorcas are to say their tearful farewell, and go their separate ways in life to meet no more as mortal beings.
“That night, not a steamer left that southern port, not a train of cars sped away from that cruel city, that did not bear each its own sad burden of those unhappy ones.”
