New Orleans slave market explained
New Orleans, Louisiana was a major, if not the major, slave market of the lower Mississippi River valley of the United States from approximately 1830 until the American Civil War. Slaves from the upper south were trafficked by land and by sea to New Orleans where they were sold at a markup to the cotton and sugar plantation barons of the region.
History
In the years immediately following the War of 1812, the most active slave markets in the Deep South of the United States were at Algiers, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi.[1] One New Orleans historian found evidence of that "the mistress of the trade", as New Orleans was later known, was open for business in the first years of the 19th century, but "it was not till the 1820s had well set in that the number of American slave merchants grew to impressive proportions" and by 1827 "New Orleans had become the chief center of the slave trade in the lower South"[2]
By the 1850s the city had what was essentially a dedicated "slave district" that was "dominated by traders' pens and offices: in 1854, there were no fewer than seven slave dealers in a single block on Gravier, while on a single square on Moreau Street there was a row of eleven particularly commodious slave pens." A lady of New Orleans wrote that her doubts about the colonization scheme were fueled by the profitability of the slave supply chain that stretched across the South: "But alas! while we can see from one of our broadest! streets suspended from the tops of the houses across the street a pennon bearing in large letters this inscription—Talbot's Slave Depot—with the lower floor filled with men and women for sale— specimens of them at the doors— and the very high prices which these victims now command — we fear that Virginia and the other exporting States will send down more slaves for Talbot than free men for Liberia."[3]
As Frederic Bancroft put it in his Slave-Trading in the Old South:
The New Orleans slave market was closed in 1864 by the United States Army: "By order of Major General Banks, all the 'signs' of the slave-pens or auctions were erased. The names of Hatch's, Foster's, Wilson's, Campbell's, have disappeared from their respective houses. Campbell's slave pen is a rebel-prison. 'Got in dar ye-self,' a black woman said, as she saw the rebel prisoners tiling into the old pen. 'Use' to put us dar! Gos dar ye-self now. De Lord's comin'.' A few of the old slave-traders remain, gliding about like ghosts, and wasting away daily in the uncongenial atmosphere of freedom."[4]
Slave dealers
Traders listed in the 1846 New Orleans city directory:[5]
- Boudar Thomas negro trader 11 Moreau St.
- Chriswell, E. negro trader, Circus b. Gravier and Perdido streets
- Davis, Marc negro trader 14 Moreau st.
- Donevan & Wilson, negro traders 56 Esplanade st.
- Hagan, John negro trader, c. Esplanade and Moreau st.
- Hite, S. N. negro trader 100 Union st. 2 m.
- Lockett, Edward negro trader 18 Moreau st.
- Peterson & Stewart, negro traders c. Common and Franklin streets.
- Slatter, Henry negro trader c. Esplanade and Moreau sts
- White, J. R. negro trader Union n. St. Charles st.
- Williams, H. William negro trader 58 Esplanade st.
- Williams, W. B. negro trader 117 Perdido St.
Traders listed in the 1861 New Orleans city directory:[6]
- Andrius Henry, 195 Gravier
- Boazman J. W. 166 Gravier
- Bruin Joseph, Esplanade c. Chartres
- Campbell Walter L. 54 Baronne
- Elam R. H. 58 Baronne
- Foster Thomas, 76 and 78 Baronne
- Hatcher Charles F. 195 Gravier
- Johnston Theodore, 8 Moreau
- Lilly A. 48 Baronne
- Long R. W. 161 Gravier
- Loftin E. 169 Gravier.
- Matthews Thos. E. Esplanade c. Chartres
- Peterson H. F. 8 late 15 Perdido
- Poindexter & Little, 48 Baronne
- Rutherford C. M. 68 Baronne
- Smith John B. 90 Baronne
- Weisemann A. 177 Gravier
- Wilson J. M. Gravier c. Baronne
See also
References
Sources
- Book: Bancroft, Frederic . . 2023 . Frederic Bancroft . University of South Carolina Press . Reprint . Southern Classics Series . Columbia, S.C. . en-us . Original publisher: J. H. Fürst Co., Baltimore . 1931, 1996 . 978-1-64336-427-8 . 1153619151 . 95020493 . Introduction by Michael Tadman .
- Book: Tadman, Michael . Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South . 1989 . University of Wisconsin Press . Madison, Wisconsin . 978-0-299-11850-1 .
Notes and References
- Book: James, D. Clayton . Antebellum Natchez . 1993 . Louisiana State University Press . 978-0-8071-1860-3 . Baton Rouge, Louisiana . 197 . en-us . 68028496 . 28281641 . 1968.
- Kendall . John S. . January 1939 . Shadow Over the City . The Louisiana Historical Quarterly . New Orleans . . 22 . 1 . 142–165 . 0095-5949 . 1782268 . LDS Film 1425689, Image Group Number (DGS) 1640025 . FamilySearch Digital Library.
- News: 1853-06-02 . Southern Sentiment . 2024-08-03 . The National Era . 1.
- News: 1864-11-11 . Letter from Major Plumly . 2024-07-28 . The Liberator . 2.
- Book: Michel & Co., New Orleans . New Orleans annual and commercial register of 1846. Containing the names, residences and professions of all the heads of families and persons in business of the city and suburbs, Algiers and Lafayette, &c. .. . 1845 . New Orleans, E.A. Michel & Co . The Library of Congress.
- Web site: Gardner's New Orleans directory for 1861 : including Jefferson City, Gretna, Carrollton, Algiers, and McDonogh : with a new map of the city, a street and ... . 2024-07-28 . HathiTrust . 2027/dul1.ark:/13960/t5n880n68?urlappend=%3Bseq=501 . en.
