Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -

Sale 2697 - Lot 362

Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(SLAVERY.) A Valuable Sugar Plantation, and a Large Gang of Acclimated Negroes, for Sale at Auction. Letterpress broadside, 22¾ x 16 inches, with signed manuscript note at bottom; moderate edge wear, ink burns to manuscript portion, foxing, mat toning, laid down on modern board. New Orleans, LA, 29 January [1833]
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Additional Details

Lists and describes 114 enslaved people who worked at a sugar plantation in Terre aux Boeufs in Bernard Parish, just southeast of New Orleans. They are described collectively "as a gang, inferior to none in the country. They are all well acclimated (very few of them having been less than eleven to fourteen years in Louisiana), remarkably orderly, and well disposed, and generally intelligent." Some are grouped to be sold in family units.

Many of the descriptions give a sense of the person. "Major Lovius, 40 years old, a prime field hand and axeman; ranaway in 1822, on his arrival, but has ever since been remarkably steady and orderly." "Cudjoe, 45 years old, is a capital common frame house carpenter, but is lazy, and has runaway once and has been injured in the shoulder, from which he frequently complains." "Mulatress Pelagie, 60 years old, the mother of Feliciana, No. 65, and will be sold with her. She is infirm but a first rate hospital nurse, and long accustomed to administer medicine for common complaints. Is also a good baker and French cook." The plantation's machinery is also described in detail.

The auction was held by the team of Hewlett & Peire, and F.J. Domingon at the corner of Chartres and St. Louis Streets, possibly the historic Exchange Coffee House. No year is given in this broadside, but the introductory text was published in the 4 January 1833 issue of the New Orleans Bee. No other examples traced in OCLC, at auction or elsewhere.

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