Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1891-04-05
AN OLD SLAVE SELLER
Strange Story by the Last of the Negro
Auctioneers

tion block, I'm seVenty-years old now,
and guess my time has nearly come"
Thus spoke old Jack Campbell as he filled
his glass for the fourth time at Broad
street bar, and leaned back against the
counter to open up his budget of rcmin-
iscenses. went into the slave auc-
ton business in 1885 and never quit IL
until the war broke out l have sold
niggers in Baltimore, Richmond Charles
ton, savannah, Louisville, Mobile, New
Orleans, Memphis, and all along in the
other towns Of the South ! don't blow
>>my own trHmpet-yoH men are dumb
:. but can say that Jack Campbell had the
reputation for showing up the good
points Of IA buck or a 'Wench' and draw
ing out bids that made him in demand
wherever there was a big sale.
The niger traders have made me
sraVel five hundred miles t,Fun off lot
Tor them, ana they paid me my own price
for my work.
Glow many have | sold? | was in the
business some twenty-five years, and
guess ! always handled five or six hun
dred year.
give had plenty of queer experiences
as you call them" he continued, after he
had wiped his lips with a uubby white
. about il, | remember the biggest money /
ever got for Niger was 5000 for
pretty quadrOOn wench that | sold in
Louisville about 81 or 'j3. 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 I heard too that his
wife swore That Niger must leave the
plantation or she wOulif 90 home to her
itamiiy. My instructions were not to take
vleSs than 5000 for the girl, aud 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
, biddin. for her, and the fellow that got
her for $1,000 was rich and gay young
bachelor from Tennessee, who happened
TO be in the city on a spree and was at
tracted by curiosity to the sale. He was
a little drlnky and wasn't caring anything
for his ducats. He was so set ON having
the girl, believe he would have given
10000 for her, If anybody had bid up thai
high. lie 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 bf his soldiers
zone of this woman's children by her
first master lives In a Massachusetts town
now, and is a rich man. There isn't a
sign Of black blood in him"
Have you sold many Of such peOple?"
'Plenty Of likely girls, from chocolate
color up to nearly white, and got from
5000 to 5000 apiece for EN-. There al
ways was a good market for that kind of
stock. No, il didn't come from any par
. tlcuar place in the South. NOu could
find 1t anywhere from Maryland TO Lou
'isiana. Southern gentlemen took an in
tereSt in il. sir, and no decent master
Ipf If fhAg. Is
man. They were superior people, super |
ioT people
New Orleans, Louisville, Charleston, /
and Baltimore used TO be about the same |
till the CuSSed black AbaftiOnists rot to /
running the niggers North by the under |
ground railroad. After that it was "a /
little dangerous to do business In Balti- |
more or Louisville for fear the Yankees /
would steal them across the Pennsylvania |
line or the Ohio river.
Il brought six blacks 10 Baltimore !
once on my own account, and put 'em i'm |
the pen at the corner Of Eulaw and Cam
den streets, to wait Tor a sale. Two got |
loose that very night, and that was The /
last ever saw Of them. OF course thew /
got oyer into Pennsylvania, but they /
never could have done 10 without some /
body helped them, for they had come
clear from North Carolina. They were |
worth sf,jB apiece and / was clear q. 900 /
out of pocket. There was nest of in |
ternai Quakrrs up at place called /
Chrlstiana in this state, and they were |
always iOOkin' out 70 rob a man o. his /
honest property.
Another time niger ran away from
me at Newport, Ky. and got To- Cinciu- /
natl. ! went across the river aud saw a /
friend Of mine who kept "a place where ] !
played In a good many thousand of my |
hard earned dollars. / told him J wanted !
his help TO get the man back. and. SAYS
he, Jack. if yOu amt a fool you'll let |
that moke go. IL mightnt be healthy for
you 10 raise row here over one Niger.
cause the niger lovers are bosses here"
lie was sensible man and took his ad-
vice.
This was in IS, and after that / didn't
do any more business on my own risk 50
close to the North. The last sales were
made in Baltimore, and Louisville in
1861, put for five or sin years previous
New Orleans was our best market
Maybe it amt any use telling people
so. but the hardest masters on the slaves
were the Yankees who settled IN the
South or had come there as Overseers. /
never saw one Of them that wouldn't
break ~ "A family VIII en- he wanted to sell
had TO deliver two field hands once al
plantation three miles out from MilIedRe-
vile. | was marching them along the
road and one turned around as quick as "A
flash aud knocked me down before
hutW Mudl Nv was uDlHE. HtF started
to run but / drew on them and brought
one Of them down with bullet In his
back. He wasn't badly hurt but after
got them Hp TO the plantation the one
AIshot was lBid up for three weeks, and cuss
tAe If the man who had bought him didn't
offer TO sue me for the loss Of his services.
after / had saved his Niger for him.
That man was a Yankee squatJer, aud
there were plenty more just as mean as
him"
81 suppose there are not many signs
left of the slave trading days?"
More than you'd think unless you
knew where to LOOK for them. Go into
any Southern hotel that was built before
the war and ask them TO let you down
into the cellars. See if you don't find
there the old cells where the servants of
travellers were shut up at night The
Baltimore custom house was once a hotel
and there are more than two dozen cells
under II now. Ben O'Hara's slave Jail
in that city is still standing on Pratt
street, although tt has been turned into a
beer garden. Aud through all the larger