The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1884-07-19
An Old Slave Seller.
Strange Stories by the Last of the Negro
Auctioneers-Slaves Lost and
Won Gambling.
Boston Herald.

/
Auctioneers-SlavesL Lost and
| Won Gambling.
Boston Herald.
eyes, sir, so far as I know, and
think l know all about it, I'm the las
living representative of the profession
the last man alive in the United State:
who made business of selling niggers
from the auction block. I'm IL year:
old, and l guess my time has nearly
come" usspoke old Jack Campbell
as he filled his glass for the fourth time al
a Broad street bar, and leaned back
against the counter to open his budget
of "reminiscences. ''I went into the
slave auction business in 1885, and never
quit it until the war broke out. have
sold niggers in Baltimore, Richmond,
Charlestown, Savannah, Louisville, Mo-
bile, 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 I can say that Jack
fGgm fGGagmPbell Up had the reputation for show
a 'wench' and drawing out bids that
made him 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 l soldl l was in
the business some twenty-five years, and
I guess 1 always handled 500 or 600 a
year.
'I had plenty of queer experiences,
as you call them," he continued, after
he had wiped his lips with nobby
white silk handkerchief. "Long syou
ask about it, 1 remember the biggest
money I ever got for niger was S9,-
900 for pretty quadroon wench that l
sold in Louisville about 81 or So.
She was only eighteen, 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. l heard, too, that his
wife swore that niger must leave the
plantation, or she would go home to
her family. Myinstructions were not to
take less than S6,o for the girl, and
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 was more than twenty men
bidding for her, and the fellow that goi
her for $4,000 was rich and gay young
bachelor from Tennessee, who happen
ed to be in the city on a spree and wa;
attracted by curiosity to the sale. He
was little drinky and wasn't caring
anything for his ducats. He was SO sci
on having the girl, l believe he would
have given $40, 1000 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 thar
orr 80, --"de big name in the South
his n sold;ysd a,l1dIy and was killed at the head Of
"One of this woman's children By
her first master lives in MaSsachusett:
town now, and is rich man. There
isn't sign of black blood in him."
"Have you sold many ofsuch people?'
"Plenty of likely girls, from choco
late color up to nearly white, and got
from $4,000 to $4,000 apiece for 'em
There always was a good market fol
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 gen
tleman took an interest in it, sir, anc
no decent master would let one of those
girls marry a black man. They were
superior people, superior people" p"
(Which were the best markets?"
"New Orleans, Louisville, Charles.
ton and Baltimore used to be about the
same till the cussed black Abolitionists
got to running the niggers North by the
underground railroad. After this ii
Bass BBasslaalyTsa alTaXf if litt]s d3pgs5aqs to Dc
fear the Yankees would steal them
across the Pennsylvania line or the Ohio
river.
''I once brought six blacks to Balti
more on my own account, and put then
in the pen at the cornor of Eutaw anc
Camden streets to wait for sale. Two
got loose that very night, and that wa:
the last ever saw of them. Of course
the got over into Pennsylvania, but they
never could have done itwithout some
body helped them, for they had come
clear from North Carolina. They were
worth $500 apiece, and l was cleai
s., 900 out of pocket. There was
nest of internal Quakers up at place
called Christiana, in this State, anc
they were always looking out to rob
man of his honest property.
"Another time a niger ran ava,
from me at Newport, Kentucky, ant
got to Cincinnati. l went across tn
the river and saw a friend of mine VIII,
kept a place where 1 had payed in
| great many thousand of my hard earne'
dollars. l told him 1 wanted his hel
to get the man back, and, said he:-
"Jack, if you amt foolyou'I let tha
moke go. 1t mightn't be healthy fo
you to raise row here over one niger
cause the niggerlovers are bosses here.
He was a sensible man, and l took hi
advice.
sThis was in '58, and after that
didn't do any more business on m
own risk so close to the North. Th
last sales were made in Baltimore an
Louisville in 1861, but for five or 81
years previous New Orleans was ou
best market.
"Maybe it amt any use telling pee
pie so, but the hardest masters on tn
Slaves were the Yankees who had settle
in the South or had come there as ovel
seers. | never saw one of them thu
wouldn't break up a family when h
wanted to sell. l had to deliver tw
field hands once to plantation thre
miles out from Milledgeville. l W;
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