Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-10-22
Glimpses of Slavery Times
Out Of an Old Letter Book from the
Charleston Slave Mart.

Out Of an Old Letter Book from the
Charleston Slave Mart.
The New England Historic Genealogical
society has recently come into the posses
sion of a letter book kept by Z. B. Cakes,
the manager of the Charleston slave mart
when the South Carolina city was a centre
of the traffic in human beings. This letter
book was rescued from the ruin and confu-
sion Of that city, after Sherman's trumphal
march to the sea, by Charles Carleton Coffin,
the well-known war correspondent and writ
er Of several books. With the letter book
there was presented to the society the red
auction flag of the mart, under whose be-
grimed folds many helpless human beings
was sold into bondage. The book contains
a list of slaves sold, at prices ranging from
$ll1 TO $500 each, and the letters all bear
the date of 1857. There is no reference Of
any kind to the coming great struggle in
which the Constitution" was wiped out for
ever, but many Of the letters tell of runa-
way slaves, and some of the later ones re-
fer TO the dullness of the market" and
express a fear that the future OF the trade"
is uncertain.
This old book Of letters brings one face to
face with the dominant issues of the later
years of the American conflict. What story
of human wrong is told in this extract
from letter of one OF the slave dealers
agents:
mr.. Mansen bought fellow here last
night fol $1,000. He is likely, but has been
awfuly whipped"
From the heartless tone OF some of these
letters 1t might seem that they referred to
horses or cattle, instead of human beings.
A slave dealers agent in Logansville had
sent negro named Plenty to be sold in
the Charleston mart. A week or two later
he writes:
Dear Mr.. Oakes-Do let me kno
something particular abou; Plenty, II he is
sold, etc. il he still continues to make
himself a bad case. | think If YOU would
put him in the workhouse in solitary con-
hnement and have him whipped well for
while, that he would be more saleabe. Do
write more particularly"
Another feature of the institution is
seen in this letter from an agent in Leigh
ton, Alabama:
Dear Sir-A friend of mine, planter,
desires me TO write to you and ask you
what young negro women, say from ~ to
=
for wives for his men,"
Most frequent are the letters which refer
to the state of the slave trade in other parts
of the South. One letter from Richmond,
dated July 10, 1857, says:
This market is fine. They are selling
from % to 80 per day, and at fine prices.
A yellow girl, no qualifications, sold this
morning for $3.50. Black ones at $3.50,
men at Sl4OO."
Two weeks later comes another letter
from the same Richmond correspondent,
in which he says: "If those old negroes of
mine were here now / could sell them.
could sell the devil here in the shape of
negro"
Occasionally, out of this story of shame,
there CLEANS a ray of human kindness.
One of the letters from a Richmond man
follows:
~. b. Cakes, ChdrleSton-I will pur-
chase your servant woman, named Nancy
Roberts, for $500. | do this to crafty her
daughter. Ann, who was to see her mother
in Charleston some time past; you will
please send Nancy to Richmond in care of
some safe person if you can find anyone
coming this way. If not, send her by her
self. If you can arrange 10 do so, furnish
her with money sufficient to pay her ex-
penses TO Richmond, which add to $500.
Send bill of sale"
PROFESSIONALLY there is material for an
other work like "Uncle Toms Cabin" in
this bundle of old letters If they revealed
both sides of the correspondence. A Sa-
vannah slave dealer has written his own
record of ignominy into the book in let
ter regarding slave boy named Ephraim.
There is a brief letter introducing an agent
who had in charge the boy Ephraim, and a