"Matters and Things in Virginia," visit to a Slave Auction, 1852

John Hartwell

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In the spring of 1852, a correspondent identified only by the initials “L.S.” sent to the Boston Recorder, his personal observations of his six-week visit to Virginia and the Carolinas, under the title: “Matters and Things in Virginia.”

The writer is a northerner (probably a Bostonian), and of anti-slavery convictions. But, his account lacks the violent rhetoric of shock and outrage of so much Radical Abolitionist propaganda. He speaks calmly, matter-of-factly, describing with apparent honesty just what he sees and hears, making relatively little comment, though leaving no doubt of his feelings.

The first installment of the writer’s account appears in the newspaper’s May 27th issue, and relates his observations of


Matters and Things in Virginia

Richmond. Va., April, 1862

An excursion of six weeks through Virginia and Carolina cannot, of course, furnish a complete knowledge of the institution of slavery, or qualify the traveler to speak authoritatively respecting it. But the impressions of each new observer, may help to form correct views of it.
A SLAVE SALE
I attended seven or eight different sales in different places. A description of one, however, is a description of all. The room was, in every instance, a large, unplastered, dingy apartment. About a dozen slaves, neatly dressed, were seated on a rough bench, near which stood screens of white cloth stretched on frames, which made a partial enclosure in one corner. There were three men, a woman with a babe, two other women, who told me they were mothers, and several girls from eight to eighteen years old.
The room was filled with a motley group, well dressed elderly gentlemen in spectacles, sleek merchants, and coarse, hard-featured slave traders, reading the newspapers, chatting, smoking, and spitting. Every few minutes someone approached the negroes, and questioned or otherwise examined some one of them. At length the sale began.
A black girl of fifteen was led to the block by a negro attendant, who seemed to take great satisfaction in his authority, and gave his orders with great sharpness.. The girl’s sleeves were rolled up, and her skirts lifted as high as the knee, while she stood on the block. She was made to walk, and jump. Bidders opened her mouth as one would a horse’s mouth, and examined her teeth. They felt her joints, neck, and bust, precisely as one would examine a horse. She was sold for $545.
The next set up, was a girl of ten years, light colored, with Caucasian features, straight hair, and slender form. I heard the bidders say, “she is the handsomest gal in the city. She ought to be bought and brought up for a fancy!” She was sold for $625.
Others followed, and I need not particularize. The highest price brought by any one in my presence, was $890; the price of an athletic man of twenty-five years. In all cases, previous to the sale, the men were stripped and examined by all who chose. And when any bidder requested it, the females were taken behind the screen and exposed in the same manner to all who chose to go and look.
The majority of the slaves exhibited no more emotion under all these indecencies, than so many cows of heifers would. And in respect to being sold, most of them exhibited no special concern. A few appeared cheerful, or even gay; most seemed calm, and apathetic; a few wept, especially the white little girl wept when any one began to question or handle her; and when placed on the block, seemed likely to sink under the violence of her emotion.
I mingled with the purchasers, and asked the slaves many questions. I did not find one that could tell his own age. In every instance, wives were sold separate from their husbands, and children separate from their parents. The only exception was that of two infants, each sold with its mother. One of the mothers had that child only; the other left several behind. I noticed also that every boy and man whose examination I took pains to witness, was marked across the back with scars of the lash. And those scenes, which cannot be described without doing violence to common modesty, are occurring almost every morning, not thirty rods from the most frequented streets of Richmond. The negroes, I found, felt a pride in bringing a high price, and when provoked, a common taunt is, “Go ‘long, you half-price n....r.”
Other installments of "Matters and Things in Virginia" to follow.​
 
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