(SLAVERY and ABOLITION) A Gang of 82 Choice Plantation Slave

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

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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.