(SLAVERY ABOLITION) Business card for New Orleans auctionee

Sale 2598 - Lot 31

Price Realized: $ 2,860

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

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000

(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Business card for New Orleans auctioneers Mackey & Day: "Real Estate, Negroes, Horses, Mules, Carriages." Printed card, 1 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches, on white coated stock; minor foxing and dampstaining, mount remnants on verso. New Orleans, LA, [early 1861]

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Additional Details

This firm had offices at 57 Magazine Street and 866 Levee Street. John G. Mackey (1825-1873) and Lemuel Purnell Day (1829-1932) advertised themselves as "Auctioneers, Commission & Forwarding Merchants, will pay strict attention to the purchase and sale of Real Estate, Negroes, Horses, Mules, Carriages, and every description of Merchandise."

The card is undated. Mackey was a partner in other auction firms from 1859 onward. By 9 February 1861, he was in operation at these two addresses as a sole proprietor, when he advertised in the New Orleans Crescent for the upcoming auction of "Daniel, a likely negro fellow, about 30 years old; a good house servant, coachman, and ostler" and "Abraham, a good whitewasher and plasterer." The partnership of Mackey & Day began soon after, and advertised from these addresses in the New Orleans Daily Crescent from 28 February to 6 May 1861. The 5 June 1861 issue of the Daily Delta advertised the 57 Magazine location for rent, "lately occupied by Mackey & Day." Mackey later served as a captain in the Confederate army, while Day served as a lieutenant in the Crescent City Guards militia unit. The arrival of Union troops in May 1862 brought an end to the slave trade in New Orleans. This card was found in a scrapbook kept by a Union soldier during the Civil War.