Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1884-06-26
Al OLD SLAVE sgLigR.
usrsgs s.~.S Hess 81 ; 1eGfo
Auctaonssrs-sIAvss Lest n Won Gam

"Yes. sir, so far rs / know, and | think
I know all about il, I'm the last living
representative of tho profession-the
last man alive in the United States who
made a business Of selling niggers from
the auction block. I'm ~ years old
now, and I gaess my time has nearly
come" Thus spoke old Jack Campbell
as he flled his glass for the fourth time
at a Broad street bar, and leaned back
against the counter TO open up his bud
Get Of "reminiscences. II went into the
slave auction business in 1885 and never
omit il until the war broke out. have
sold niggers in Baltimore, Richmond,
Charleston. Savannah, Louisville, Mo-
bile. New Orleans, Memphis and all
along in the other towns OF the south.
I don't blow my own trumpet-you
know that on their own merits modest
men are dumb-but / can ray that Jack
Campbell had the reputation for show
ing up the good points OF a buck or q
'wench' and drawing out the bids that
made him in demand wherever there
was q big sale"
"The nigger traders have made me
travel 500 miles, to run off a lot OF them,
and they paid mi nay own price for the
work.
How many have / sold? l was in
the business some % years. and | guess
/ always handled 500 or GOO a year.
"Fve 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 big
gest money / ever got for a niger was
s. 1900 for a pretty quadroon weneh that
I sold in Louisville about 30 or f53.
She was only Is, and was about as white
as Won 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, be was so
down in his luck that he had to sell her,
/ heard, too. that his wife swore that
niger must leave the plantation or she
would go home to her family. Ny in
structions we're not to take less than So
600 for the girl, and | Vas to get a big
percentage on all owe that; so when
I they put her on the block / talked her
up for all she was worth.
There were more than 90 men bid
ding for her, and the fellow that got
her for $1,000 was a rich and gay young
bachelor from Tennessee, who hap
pened 10 he in the city. on a spree ard
was attracted by curiosity 10 the sale.
He was a little drinky and wasn't caring
anything for his ducats. He was so set
on having the girl, j believe he would
have given S2O,0 900 for her, if anybody
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 a big name in the south
erR army and was killed at the head OF
his soldiers.
Zone Of this woman's children by her
first master lives in q Massachusetts, town
now, and is q rich man. There isn't a
sign Of black blood in him"
Have you sold many Of such peo.
ple?"
Plenty Of likely girls, from chocolate
color up TO nearly white, and got from
So, 600 to So, 600 apiece for 'em. There
always was a good market for that kind
of stock. No, it didn't come from any
particular place in tac south. You
could find it everywhere from Maryland
20 Louisiana. Southern gentlemen took
an interest in it, sir, and no decent mas
ter would let IA of those girls marry a
black man. They were superior peo-
pie, 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 running the niggers north by the
underground railroad. After that j
was always a little dangerous to do
business in Baltimore or louisville for
fear the Yankees would steal them across
the Pennsylvania line or the Ohio river
Il brought six blacks to Baltimore
orc or my own account and put then
la the pen at the corner If Eutaw and
Camden streets to wait for sale. TIVE
got loose that very night, and that was
the last 1 ever saw of them. OF cours,
they got over into Pennsylvania, bu
they never could have done il withou
somebody helped them, for they hat
come clear from North Carolina. The,
we're worth 81 500 apiece, and / wa.
clear 50, 1000 out of pocket. There wa
a nest of Internal Quakers mp at a plac.
called Christiana in this state, and the,
we're always lookin' out to rob man o
his honest property.
Another time a Niger ran away from
me at Newport, XIV, and got to Gin
cinnati. | went across the river ant
say a friend of mine who kept a plac,
where / had played in a good man,
thousand Of my bard earned dollars. ]
told him / wanted his help 10 get th,
man back, and q y he, Jack, il yor
amt a fool, you'll let that moke GO. II
mightn't be healthy for you to raise /
row here over n niger, 'canse tn,
Niger lovers are bosses here He wa,
a sensible man, and i took his advice.
This was in '5S, and after that ]
didn't do any more business on my owr
risk $ o close to the north. The last
sales were madein Baltimore and Louis.
vile In 1861, but for five or six year.
previous New Orleans was our best mar.
ket.
""fsV "mi auN uSh tfltllR HRO-
pie so, but the hardest masters ON tho
slaves were the Yankees who sAtled
in the south or had come
there as overseers. / neye,
saw n of them that wouldn't break al
a family when he wanted to sell. L had
TO deliver two field hands once at a
plantation three miles ont from Mil
ledgeyille. Twas marching them along
the road and one turned as quick a,
flash and knocked me down before
knew what he was doing. They start
ed TO run but / drew on them and
brought n of them down with a bullet
IN his back. He wasn't badly hurt but
after got him up TO the plantation tn,
one ] shot was laid up for three weeks
and cuss me il the man who had boaghI
him didn't offer to sue me for the los.
OF his services after / had saved hi,
niger for him. That man was a Yam,
Ace squatter and there was plenty NOR.
Just as mean AK him.
4 II suppose there are not many sign,
left OF the slave trading days."
More than you'd think unless yor