(SLAVERY) Stereoview of the infamous Alexandria slave pen of

Sale 2663 - Lot 425

Price Realized: $ 562

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(SLAVERY.) Stereoview of the infamous Alexandria slave pen of "Price, Birch & Co., Dealers in Slaves." Pair of albumen photographs, 3 x 3 inches, on original 3½ x 7½-inch printed mount reading "Photographic History / The War for the Union" with mounted printed label reading "Slave Pen, Alexandria, Va."; minor wear, No place, circa 1880s or 1890s (printed from a circa 1864 negative)

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This stereoview depicts 1315 Duke Street in Alexandria, VA, which in 1828 became Franklin & Armfield, one of the largest slave-trading firms in the United States. Many thousands of enslaved people passed through these doors en route from Virginia to New Orleans and the booming cotton fields of the deep south. In 1858, the business was taken over by "Price, Birch & Co., Dealers in Slaves." James H. Birch, one of the partners, was a veteran Washington slave trader who had played a central role in the horrific kidnapping of Solomon Northrup (Twelve Years a Slave) but was never convicted. The business was evacuated shortly before Union troops took possession of Alexandria in 1861. Today the building is home to the Freedom House Museum.

We don't know who took this iconic photograph of the Price, Birch & Co. storefront, but the presence of several Black troops posed in front would suggest the closing years of the war. The mount is similar to a series issued by E. & H.T. Anthony after the war, although their firm's name does not appear on this example.