Slave Markets
European immigrants went to America to own their own land and were reluctant to work for others. To satisfy the tremendous demand for labour planters, therefore, began to purchase slaves and busy slave markets were established in Philadelphia, Richmond, Charleston and New Orleans.
On visiting the settlement of Charlestown I soon become aware that the slave trade presents some of the most revolting and atrocious scenes that can be imagined. Slave prisons, slave auctions, handcuffs, whips, chains, bloodhounds, and other instruments of cruelty, are part of the furniture that belongs to the American slave trade. It is enough to make humanity bleed at every pore, to see these implements of torture.
I can only imagine the amount of human agony and suffering that sends its cry from these slave prisons, as I observed mothers weeping for their children, breaking the night silence with the shrieks of their breaking hearts.
On visiting the settlement of Charlestown I soon become aware that the slave trade presents some of the most revolting and atrocious scenes that can be imagined. Slave prisons, slave auctions, handcuffs, whips, chains, bloodhounds, and other instruments of cruelty, are part of the furniture that belongs to the American slave trade. It is enough to make humanity bleed at every pore, to see these implements of torture.
I can only imagine the amount of human agony and suffering that sends its cry from these slave prisons, as I observed mothers weeping for their children, breaking the night silence with the shrieks of their breaking hearts.
I shall never forget a scene that took place on my visit. A man and his wife, both slaves, were for sale. The man was first put up, and sold to the highest bidder. The auction then commenced bidding on the wife, whose cheeks were wet with tears. At this time the male slave was begging his new master to purchase his wife. When his new master bid on his wife you could see a smile appear, and the tears stop. But as soon as another would bid you could see the expression change, the tears start afresh, and the workings of the innermost soul. This suspense did not last long as the wife was sold to a higher bidder. As soon as they become aware that they were to be separated, they both burst into tears, and the husband, taking her by the hand, said, “Well, Fanny, we are to part forever, on earth. You have been a good wife to me. I hope you will try to meet me in heaven. I shall try to meet you there.” The wife made no reply, but her sobs and cries told her own feelings. It seemed that at these auctions, bones, muscles, blood and nerves, of human beings, are sold with as much indifference as a farmer sells a horse or sheep.
So absolutely were slaves in the power of their masters that they were pledged, leased, exchanged, taken for debt or gambled off. Men, women and children were sold by auction so that husbands and wives were separated, never to meet again, and little children were torn from their parents loving arms, and sold into slavery, and into the hands of strangers from distant lands. These slaves are prisoners for life, and can possess nothing, nor acquire anything. They are bound in chains, hand and foot, and are not allowed to struggle against misfortune, corporal punishment, insults and outrages committed against them and their family. I cannot imagine how terrible they would feel.
I was fortunate to meet Olaudah Equiano, an African slave in Charleston in the late 18th century, who shared his experiences: “We are not many days in the merchant’s custody, before we are sold in the usual manner. The buyers rush into the yard where the slaves are confined, and make choice of the parcel they like best. The noise and the clamour, and the visible eagerness of the buyers, serves to increase the apprehension of terrified Africans. In this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated, never to see each other again. It is a very moving occasion to see and hear their cries at parting. Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and friends, to toil for your luxury and lust for gain? Must every tender feeling be sacrificed to your avarice? Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, husbands their wives? Surely this is a new refinement in cruelty, which aggravates distress and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.”