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Shockoe Slip in Richmond, Virginia — The American South (Mid-Atlantic)
 

Auction Houses

— Richmond Slave Trail —

 
 
Auction Houses Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Bernard Fisher, April 16, 2011
1. Auction Houses Marker
Inscription. There were several dozen such houses in Shockoe Bottom, typically selling human “goods” along with corn, coffee, and other commodities. Some sales were part of a larger business; other auctioneers dealt exclusively in slaves. Most slave commerce was concentrated in the roughly 30-block area bounded by Broad, 15th, and 19th Streets and the river. Davenport & Co., located at 15th and Cary streets, was an auction house near the center of the district; portions of the building survived Civil War destruction and are now a part of the present building. Located here along with the auction houses were holding pens, slave jails, and lodging for slave traders. White Richmonders generally ignored slave sales or accepted them as “normal.”

New York Daily Tribune, March 8, 1859 reprinted in Hart, Albert B., American History Told by Contemporaries v. 4 (19280>

“So Molly was put through her paces, and compelled to trot up and down along the stage, to go up and down the steps, and to exercise her feet in various ways, but always with the same result, the left foot would be lame. She was finally sold for $695. [equivalent to approximately $15,300 in 2005 dollars]

Whether she really was lame or not, no one knows but herself, but it must be remembered that to a slave a lameness, or anything that decreases his market value,
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is a thing to be rejoiced over. A man in the prime of life, worth $1,600 [equivalent to approximately $35,200 in 2005 dollars] or thereabouts, can have little hope of ever being able, by any little savings of his own, to purchase his liberty. But, let him have a rupture, or lose a limb, or sustain any other injury that renders him of much less service to his owner, and reduces his value to $300 or $400, and he may hope to accumulate that sum, and eventually to purchase his liberty. Freedom without health is infinitely sweeter than health without freedom.

And so the Great Sale went on for two long days, during which time there were sold 429 men, women and children. There were 436 announced to be sold, but a few were detained on the plantations by sickness… The total amount of the sale foots up $308, 850.” [equivalent to approximately $6,700,000 in 2005 dollars]”


“Slave Auction, 1859,” Eye Witness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2005).

About the Trail

Designed as a walking path, the Richmond Slave Trail chronicles the history of the trade in enslaved Africans from their homeland to Virginia until 1778, and away from Virginia, especially Richmond, to other locations in the Americas until 1865. The trail begins at the Manchester Docks, which, alongside Rocketts Landing on the north side of the river, operated as a major
Notice of Slave Auction, Richmond, Virginia, 1823 image. Click for full size.
2. Notice of Slave Auction, Richmond, Virginia, 1823
As shown on www.slaveryimages.org (image reference NW0303), sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library.
port in the massive downriver slave trade, making Richmond the largest source of enslaved blacks on the east coast of America from 1830 to 1860. While many of the slaves were shipped on to New Orleans and to other Deep South ports, the trail follows the footsteps of those who remained here and crossed the James River, often chained together in a coffle. Once reaching the northern riverbank, the trail then follows a route through the slave markets and auction houses of Richmond, beside the Reconciliation Statue commemorating the international triangular slave trade and on to the site of the notorious Lumpkin’s Slave Jail and leading on to Richmond’s African Burial Ground, once called the Burial Ground for Negroes, and the First African Baptist Church, a center of African American life in pre-Civil War Richmond. - Richmond Slave Trail Commission – 2011 –
Title image: “After the Sale: Slaves Going South”, 1853, Painted from live by Eyre Crowe, courtesy the Chicago History Museum
 
Erected 2011 by Richmond Slave Trail Commission. (Marker Number 12.)
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Abolition & Underground RRAfrican Americans. A significant historical date for this entry is March 8, 1665.
 
Location. 37° 32.015′ N, 77° 25.873′ W. Marker is in
Slave Auction, Richmond 1861 image. Click for full size.
Photographed By G.H. Andrews, circa 1861
3. Slave Auction, Richmond 1861
The Illustrated London News (Feb. 16, 1861), p.139. As shown on www.slaveryimages.org (image reference auction_Richd_1861), sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library.
Richmond, Virginia. It is in Shockoe Slip. Marker is at the intersection of South 15th Street and East Cary Street, on the right when traveling north on South 15th Street. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Richmond VA 23219, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Davenport Trading Company (here, next to this marker); Slave Auction Site (about 400 feet away, measured in a direct line); Shockoe Slip (about 400 feet away); Mayo's Bridge (about 400 feet away); Triple Crossing (about 400 feet away); Burnt District (about 500 feet away); Bell Tavern (about 500 feet away); James River & Kanawha Canal (about 500 feet away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Richmond.
 
Related marker. Click here for another marker that is related to this marker. Old Marker At This Location titled "Davenport Trading Company".
 
Auction Houses Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Bernard Fisher, April 16, 2011
4. Auction Houses Marker
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on March 9, 2024. It was originally submitted on April 19, 2011, by Bernard Fisher of Richmond, Virginia. This page has been viewed 1,958 times since then and 35 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on April 19, 2011, by Bernard Fisher of Richmond, Virginia.

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Mar. 29, 2024