Chapter One On the Auction Block Visitors from across the South swarmed to Savannah Georgia in early March 1859 Hundreds of guests booked rooms at local hotels Then they headed to a racecourse outside the city The event that drew such huge crowds was an auction 436 slaves were being sold The auction began on March 3 Buyers inspected the slaves the same way they might check a horse The buyers pried open the slaves mouths to check their teeth pinched their muscles and made them walk around Auctioneers only cared about making as much money as possible Sometimes they sold husbands wives and their children together However there were no promises that this would happen Often families were ripped apart How did the enslaved men and women feel How did they react to being inspected by strangers They had to Slaves were treated as property and sold at auctions ﱚ5ﱚ
The Weeping Time The slave auction in Savannah in March 1859 was one of the largest in U S history It has been called the Weeping Time The auction tore hundreds of slave families apart obey the white buyers and sellers Auctioneers could not sell someone who appeared rowdy or disobedient They were quick to whip anyone who seemed rebellious Sometimes whips were not Potential buyers inspected slaves as they would inspect a horse Slaves had to allow the examination or they would be punished ﱚ6ﱚ
This receipt is for a male slave sold for 250 in 1840 needed Many of the 436 individuals wanted to impress future owners They hoped their new owners would treat them with kindness They desperately wished that their families would not be split apart However they had no control over their futures The slaves only knew that they would always be treated as property In the 1800s and earlier there were many debates about slavery in the United States Slavery was important to the nation’s economy This was especially true in the South There slaves worked on cotton and tobacco plantations Northern factories made cloth from cotton grown by ﱚ7ﱚ
