Mar 21, 2013 - Sale 2308

Sale 2308 - Lot 52

Price Realized: $ 18,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 25,000 - $ 35,000
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION--AUCTION.) Under Decree in Equity. . .Plantation or Tract of Land Called "Richfield". . .A Gang of About 111 Negroes. . " Letterpress broadside, 11-3/4 x 19-1/2 inches, printed in a variety of fonts, bold and regular; creases where folded, contemporary pencil notations on both front and verso; some very light scattered foxing. [Charleston, 1854

Additional Details

a fine detailed broadside advertising the sale of an entire plantation and its one hundred and eleven slaves, with manuscript notations regarding the prices realized for both slaves and other property.This auction, conducted because of a default on the mortgage, is of particular interest---not only because of the relatively large number of slaves involved, but also because they were to be sold in family groups. This seems to have been the norm for this rice-field region and has become the focus of some recent scholarship. Damian Alan Pargas "Weathering Different Storms: Regional Agriculture and Slave Families in the Non-Cotton South, 1800-1860." (Leiden, 2009) Pargas cites this same auction from a newspaper advertisement. He explores the differences between Southern micro-economies based on rice instead of cotton, and details the various reasons why rice-crop slave families were kept intact. Approximately a third of the broadside is devoted to a meticulous listing of all slaves by name, age, physical defect and position, i.e. driver, blacksmith, cooper, carpenter etc. Someone, possibly a family member or banker, has made the following notations: "The Negroes brought 560.00 each making 62,160/ Plantation brought 60,000/ sundry articles . . .1000/ total $123,160." A few similar notes appear on the verso. The conditions of the sale were different for slaves than for the other property: "For the Plantation: one-fifth cash, the balance on a credit of one, two three and four years. . ." "For the Slaves: One-third cash; the balance in one and two years, secured by bond." Not in OCLC, Turnbull or Sabin.