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Slaves Waiting for Sale, Richmond, Virginia, 1861

During the 1850s, hundreds of thousands of enslaved African Americans were sold by owners in the upper South (Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee) to owners in the lower South (Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi). This forced migration painfully disrupted enslaved families by separating husbands from wives and children from their parents. This painting by the British artist Eyre Crowe, based on a sketch he made when touring the U.S. in 1853, shows a scene at a slave auction in Richmond, Virginia. Slave markets, where such auctions took place, were located throughout the South; the largest was in New Orleans, Louisiana.

External Link: hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu

Source | Eyre Crowe, Slaves Waiting for Sale, Richmond, Virginia, 1861, painting (Private Collection); available from the University of Virginia, The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas, http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=sale&recordCount=50&theRecord=23.
Creator | Eyre Crowe
Rights | The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas
Item Type | Painting
Cite This document | Eyre Crowe, “Slaves Waiting for Sale, Richmond, Virginia, 1861,” SHEC: Resources for Teachers, accessed March 19, 2024, https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1623.

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