The bold title was very clear in its mission: “Public Sale of Negroes by Richard Clagett.”
If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was the title of a book and its author. But this was a broadside/poster and Clagett was a slave trader who auctioned enslaved African men, women, children and babies in a practice as horrid as any other in the history of the United States.
I first saw a photo of the advertisement on an auction-house website and instantly Googled to see what I could find out about it. I found others like it stored in university-library archives, sold at auctions or offered for sale on eBay.
When I got to the auction house, I found the broadside propped against some paintings on a table. I wasn’t sure if it was a reproduction of the original poster or an authentic antique document. I didn’t hang around to bid on it because I wasn’t sure, since it was framed and I could not handle it. The document looked different from the ones I had seen on the web.
I also wasn’t sure if I wanted to bid on an item that had been used to sell human bodies to the highest bidder on the date printed on the poster: 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 15, 1833, at Potters Mart, Charleston, SC.
The first time I actually saw a broadside for a slave auction was a few years after I started attending auctions. It was for the sale of a teenage girl, as I recall. I recoiled at the idea of bidding on the document because it felt so much like I was bidding on her, as if she were being humiliated again, this time by me. I couldn’t and still can’t shake the feeling. But I went after the document, figuring it was better for me to have it for safe-keeping rather than a dealer for resale. I was out-bidded on the document, though; I’m sure because I was still reticent about buying it.
What I found most striking about this document was the cavalier way Clagett offered to break up a family – without any concern for the turmoil and pain they would feel. Clagett, like many others of his time, saw no familial connections worth considering; they were merely workhorses, as they were represented in the broadside.
The sale included families and individuals:
“A valuable Negro woman, accustomed to all kinds of house work. Is a good plain cook and excellent dairy maid, washes and irons. She has four children, one a girl about 13 years of age, another 7, a boy about 5, and an infant 11 months old. 2 of the children will be sold with their mother, the others separately, if it best suits the purchaser.”
Two other families were being offered intact: a blacksmith, his wife and their 10- and 12-year-old daughters, and a family of house servants from a slaveholding “genteel Virginia family” that “would sell them for a good price only … because they could be done without and money is needed. He has been offered $1250.”
During slavery, keeping families together was not the norm. According to one account, of the 272 women advertised for sale with their children between 1838 and 1844 in Charleston, only eight actually were sold as a family with a husband.
Slaves were not allowed to marry legally, but families and bonds were inevitably formed. Enslaved Africans endured the ever-present threat of spouses and children being sold, since they were perceived as property that could easily be disposed of to pay off a debt or raise money for other purposes. The end of the year was especially frightening because it was the time slaveholders checked their finances and were more likely to sell slaves if they needed money.
Broadsides were commonly used during the 1800s – for both bad and good. Slaveowners used them to set rewards for slaves who had run away from plantations. Abolitionists distributed them to announce anti-slavery meetings as well as fairs to raise money. Some broadsides advertised slave sales through lotteries.
Charleston in the mid-1800s was the place where most enslaved Africans first set foot in the country, making it America’s slave trade-capital. Enslaved Africans were initially auctioned on the streets until a slave mart called Ryan’s Mart was opened. It is now the site of the city’s Old Slave Mart and Museum. I could find no location in Google for Potters Mart, but I learned that Charleston was a major pottery producer.
One of the worst slave auctions based on the sheer number of people sold did not occur in Charleston. Called “The Weeping Time,” it was held at a racetrack in Savannah, GA, in March 1859. A group of 436 men, women, children and infants were held in horse stables, where they were sold over two days to raise money to pay off a slaveholder’s debts.
As for the enslaved Africans in the Clagett sale, they have been immortalized in the play “One More River to Cross: A Verbatim Fugue” by Lynn Nottage and the musical work “African Portraits” by composer and jazz trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe.
I HAVE A FRAMED PUBLIC SALE OF NEGROS ,BY RICHARD CLAGETT THAT WAS FOUND IN THE ATTIC OF A HOUSE THAT WAS BOUGHT. IM WONDERING IF ITS WORTH ANYTHING.
Hi Gina, the best way to determine the worth is to research any sales – especially recent sales – of the broadside. Perhaps, the broadside has come up for auction at some point. Google with the search terms “Richard Clagett” to see if it has been sold, where, when and for how much. Look for the sale price, not the asking price. If it has been auctioned, that price will give you some idea of what it is worth (at least what it was worth when it was sold). Good luck.