List of largest slave sales in the United States

Listing for the Joseph Bond sale - "Sales of Land and Negroes in South Western Georgia," Albany Patriot via Macon Weekly Telegraph, January 17, 1860

This is a list of largest slave sales in the United States, as measured by number of people listed for sale at one time, usually all derived from the same plantation or network of plantations due to death or debt of owner. Note: In compensation for advertising the sale, housing the "product" prior to the auction, and managing the transactions, traders typically took 2.5% of the sales.[1]

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
Sale Number of people listed Start Date Location Owner(s) Trader Est. total value Notes
John Ball Jr. estate auction[2] 600 February 2, 1835 Charleston, South Carolina John Ball Jr. Jervey, Waring & White US$222,800 (equivalent to $6,580,506 in 2023) Ball's heir Ann Ball bought 215 of the 600 for US$79,855 (equivalent to $2,358,556 in 2023)
Joseph Bond estate auction[1] 566 January 3, 1860 Albany, Georgia Joseph Bond US$580,150 (equivalent to $19,673,531 in 2023)
Great Slave Auction[3] 436 March 2, 1859 Savannah, Georgia Pierce Mease Butler Joseph Bryan US$303,850 (equivalent to $10,303,891 in 2023)
Under the auspices of the U.S. Marshals, 493 people, ranging from centenarian Old Sampson to 15-month-old Margarette, were to be sold from four plantations in Louisiana by auction at the St. Louis Exchange in New Orleans on Saturday, March 20, 1850 (The New Orleans Crescent, March 2, 1850, page 3); according to historian Damian Alan Pargas, there was a subsequent 1852 sale of property owned by the same man, P.M. Lapice, consisting of a plantation and 256 enslaved people: "The terms and conditions of the sale were simply 'cash on the spot'—no provisions for families to be kept together were specified."[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Bancroft, Frederic (2023) [1931]. Slave Trading in the Old South. Southern Classics Series. Introduction by Michael Tadman. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press. pp. 174 (2.5% for brokers), 354–355 (Bond). ISBN 978-1-64336-427-8.
  2. ^ McIntyre, Jennifer Berry Hawes,Gavin (June 16, 2023). "How a Grad Student Uncovered the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S." ProPublica. Retrieved 2023-07-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "A GREAT SLAVE AUCTION IN GEORGIA". South Australian Advertiser. July 5, 1859. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
  4. ^ Pargas, Damian Alan (July 2009). "Disposing of Human Property: American Slave Families and Forced Separation in Comparative Perspective". Journal of Family History. 34 (3): 251–274. doi:10.1177/0363199009337394. ISSN 0363-1990. S2CID 145422925.