Feb 27, 2003 - Sale 1961

Sale 1961 - Lot 20

Price Realized: $ 10,925
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
BROADSIDE ADVERTISING A SLAVE AUCTION (SLAVERY and ABOLITION.) A Gang of 82 Choice Plantation Slaves! . . Will be Sold at the City Hotel. Letterpress broadside for an auction conducted by slave dealer C. E. Girardey, 22x7 inches; moderately toned overall, scattered archival repairs; backed with rice paper. [New Orleans], 06 April 1858 or 1859

Additional Details



An exceptionally well detailed list of slaves, giving not only their names, ages, and abilities, but their skin color. While the predominant color is described as black, quite a number have no color at all indicated. There are 4 families listed, but none offered as a group. Each family member has a separate lot number. Lot 40 is an offer of Joe, a plantation blacksmith who is accompanied by his wife, probably because a good blacksmith was very important on a plantation. Other descriptions are chilling, "78. Judy (sister of Elias, No. 60), good house girl, has a burn scar on her right foot, does not affect her walking," or "49. Henry, aged 5 years, an orphan likely."
C. E. Girardey & Company was one of the largest slave dealers in the South. Girardey himself was immensely wealthy and a powerful man in New Orleans buisness and political life. He not only survived the war, but turned up during Reconstruction as a prominent real estate speculator.