The Slave Trade was incredibly cruel. It broke families apart. People would come home from a hunt or from there work and find their families missing. Sometimes the entire villages were captured. The people in an entire village were rounded up and traded as slaves.
For over 300 years, slaves were captured along the west coast of Africa, often with the help of African kings . Slaves were traded for beads, textiles, brandy, horses, and guns.
Slavery was illegal in the United States after the Civil War, but slaves continued to be traded in Central and South America for another 40 years until finally slavery was made illegal in Central and South America as well.
Slave auctions
Not only were slaves unpaid, they were treated like material objects to be bought and sold at markets. Spouses were torn apart, mothers parted from their children, brothers and sisters sent to different states. The slaves were not human beings – they were simply cheap labor.
Slave sales were legal in America until 1865, and slavery was respectable until then – even churches justified it. Business depended on slavery, and trying to stop a slave auction was dangerous you can witness a slave auction held in Richmond, Virginia in 1845.
A planter, Mr. Jameson, offers his slave Mariah, her son Samuel, and her infant daughter for sale to anyone who will give a good price. Jameson needs cash to pay off a debt to the bank. Mariah's husband and her mother must remain on Jameson's plantation.
Mariah, Samuel, and the infant, once sold, must go wherever their new owner takes them. The white citizens of Richmond crowd the marketplace. At the virtual tour of the auction, you can
Many slaves were not sold through auctions, but through newspaper advertisements (very much like we today sell our old bikes and cars…):
This is a typical slave advertisement from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1795. The terms "healthy" and "stout" were often used to describe a woman's physical condition. This woman has probably served most of her life on a farm and is trained in both housework and farm work. This, too, is typical of slave women in this region (Pennsylvania) and time period.
Her age, thirty-three, identifies her as a slave for life, and the term "wench" is very common in describing black slave woman. It is short for the Middle English word wenchel, which means "child," and is another way of diminishing the status of adult slaves. The slaveholder remains anonymous by directing potential buyers to see the printer for further information.
