Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-07-26
THE SLAVE AUCTION.
A Story Stranger than Fiction to Young
Readers.


sentative of the profession-the last mar
alive in the United States who made bust
| ness OF selling niggers from the auction
block. I'm y years old now. and | guess
my time has nearly Gomez Thus spoke
old Jack Campbell as he filled his glass fol
the fourth time at Broad-street bar, anC
leaned back against the counter to open ur
his budget of "reminiscences. 81 went
into the slave-auction business in 1885. and
never quit it until the war broke out. ]
have sold niggers in Baltimore, Richmond
Charleston, Savannah, Louisyille, Mobile
New Orleans, Memphis, and all along in
the other towns of the South. | don't
blow my own trumpet-you know that on
their own merits modest men are dumb
but | can say that Jack Campbell had the
reputation for showing up the good points
of buck or q wench and drawing out
bids that made lin in demand wherever
there was big sale.
"The Niger traders have made me
travel 500 miles to run off lot for them,
and they paid me my own price for my
work
"How many have | sold? was in the
business some twenty-five years, and l
guess always handled 500 or 600 a year.
eve had plenty of queer experiences,
as YOU call them" he continued, after he
had wiped his lips with a nobby white silk
handkerchief Long as you ask about it.
| remember the biggest money ever got
for niger was SO, eco for pretty quadroon
wench that | sold in Louisville about 81
or 50. She was only Is, and was about as
white as YOU or me, and her two children
had light curly hair. Her master lived
down near Bowling Green, and though he
didn't want TO part with her, he was so
down in his luck that he had to sell her
| heard, too, that his wife swOre that mig
ger must leave the plantation or she would
90 home to her family Ny instructions
were not to take less than $1,000 for the
girl, and l was to get big percentage on
all over that so when they put her on the
block | talked her up for all she was
worth
"There were more than twenty men bid
ding for her, and the fellow that got her
for S., 600 was a rich and gay young bacl.-
elOT from Tennessee, VINO happened to be
in the city on a spree and was attracted by
curiosity to the sale. He was little drinBy
and wasn't caring anything for his ducats.
lie was 50 set on having the girl believe
he would have given $50, 600 for her, if any
body had bid her up that high. He carried
her home that day, and | amt going to tell
you anything more about him than that
he made big name in the Southern army
and was killed at the head of his soldiers.
One Of thiS woman's children by her
first master lives in a Massachusetts, town
now, and is Il rich man. There isn't sign
of black blood in him
Have you sold many of such people ?"
Plenty of likely girls, from chocolate
color up tOncarly white, and got from $4,000
to $4,000 apiece for EN-. There always was
a good market for that kind of stock. No,
it didn't come from any particular place in
the South. You could find it everywhere
from Maryland to Louisiana Southern
gentlemen took an interest in it. sir, and
no decent master would let one of those
girls marry q black man. They were SUI
perior people, superior people
Which were the best markets?'
New Orleans, Louisville, Charleston and
Baltimore used TO be about the same till
the cussed black Abolitionists got to run
mng the niggers North by the underground
railroad After that it was little danger
Gus to do business in Baltimore or Louis
Vile for fear the Yankees would steal them
across the Pennsylvania line or the Ohio
river.
- brought six blacks to Baltimore once
on my own account, and put EN- in the
pen at the corner OF Eutaw and Camden
streets to wait for sale. Two got loose
that very night, and that was the very last
/ ever saw Of them. OF course they got
over into PENNSYLVANIA, bat they never
could have done it without somebody
helped them, for they came clear from
North Carolina. They were worth 81, 800
apiece, and l was $1,000 out of pocket
There was a nest of Internal Quakers at
place called Christiana in this State, and
they were always lookin out to rob a man
Of his honest property.
Another time niger ran away from
me at Newport, Ky, and got TO Cincinnati.
/ went across the river and saw friend Of
mine who kept place where | had played
in q good many thousands Of my hard
earned dollars. | told him | wanted his
help 10 get the man back and says he,
Jack, if You amt a fool, you'll let that
moke go 1t mightn't be healthy for you
to raise row here over one Niger, cause
the Niger lovers are bosses here He was
a sensible man. and / took his advice.
"This was in 50, and after that | didn't
do any more business on my own risk SO
close 10 the North The last sales were
made in Baltimore and Louisville in 1861
but for five or SIX years previous New Or
leans was our best market
" Maybe il amt any use telling people so,
but the hardest masters ON the slaves were
the Yankees who had settled in the South
or had come there rs oyerScers. / never
saw one Of them that wouldn't break up a
family when he wantdd to sell. had to
deliver two field hands once at planta-
ton, three miles out from Milledgevile. l
was marching them along the road, and
one turned IS quick as flash and knocked
me down before ! knew what he was doing.
They started to run, but / drew on them
and brought one of them down with 81
bullet in the back. He wasn't badly hurt,
but after l got them up to the plantation
the one | shot was laid up for three weeks,
and cuSs me if the man who had bought
him didn't offer 10 sue me for the loss Of
his services, after ! had saved his niger for
him. That man was Yankee squattcr,
and there was plenty moro just is mean as
him.
'' | suppose there are not many signs left
Of the slave rading days.?
More than you'd think, unless Tou
knew where to look for them. Go into
ans Southern hotel that was built before
the war and ask them 10 let YOU 60 down
into the cellars. Sec if you don find
there the Old cells where the servants Of
travellers were shut up at night. The Bal
timorc custom house was once hotel, and
there arc aore than two dozen cells under
it now Ben. o lLara's slave Jail in that
city Is still sanding on Pratt street, al
though ii h0e been turned into a beer gar
den, Ana uHpUsh all the large cities Of
The South the old rcsidcnicrs could show
You he private pens.
"Whcu did YOU last sell q necr0?'
Going down the Mississippi from st.
Louis 10 New Orleans on the steamer Star
OF the South, in May, 1851. I was getting
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