Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-09-10
SOUTH oARolrHA. SEPT. no. 1902.
New Orleans Slave Mart
The New Orleans Times-Demo

The New Orleans Times Demo
orat says:
Talking about the old st. Charles
said an old-timer, it was one of the
best known slave marts in the older
days. There were two stands erected,
one for males and one for females
at each end of the bar. There the
auction took place every Saturday
Sometimes there were only few
to be sold, and sometimes there were
a great many. Anyway, they
brought fancy prices in these days,
between 1867 and 1860. The i'm
portation of slaves had practically
stopped then, and the prices were
good. Besides, the war cloud had
not come SO close that men really be-
lieved there was going to be gigan-
tic struggle. Planters from all along
the river, from Natchez and Vicks-
burg and all places between used to
oongregste in New Orleans and
come around for the purpose of buy
ing likely-looking man or likely
looking woman.
The men always brought the best
prices of course, because they could
do the most work. Sometimes the
price went as high as $1,000, and
sometimes it was as low as $500. 1t
all depended on whether the fellow
who was selling had to sell or not.
Things were then very much as they
are now in that regard, and men
were as apt as ever to take advan-
tage of the misfortunes of their
brethren.
If the slave was man and war
ranted in good health, the first bid
was somewhere in the neighborhood
of $500-that is, if the owner did
not have to sell him to pay his debts.
That being the case, the first bid
was liable to be in the region of
5000. Then the contest started, and
the auctioneer, after the manner of
his kind, prated on the value of the
man he was selling and what the
productive capacity of the average
man was when he got to the field
and was in charge of mule. The
bidding would 60 along until it
reached $1,000, and then there
would be some hesitation until those
who really liked the man for his
general appearance could have time
to adjust themselves to the situation.
Finally some man would tilnidly bid
81, 200 and there would be a pause
unless the slave on the block was an
unusually good man.
1t was all cash in those days and
everybody had the money. To me,
fresh from the bogs of Ireland, it
was a revelation. l never saw so
much money in my life, and l have
not seen such times since then,
though ] have seen men who had
more money than any of the sugar
planters of those days. In those
times all of the people seemed to
have money. If you did not have
any money yourself all you had to
do was to ask the next man for it
and you got it. The wealth was
evenly distributed. was amazed,
for / had come from a country which
was poor then, and is poor even yet,
and / had not been used to velvet
and those things which 60 for luxury.
I had run away from ship down
near the barracks, and I thought for
while l had landed in some place
where they grew money.
The selling of slaves continued
there every Saturday until the out
break of the war. OF course, when
the people saw the war was coming,
the number of slaves sold fell off,
for the reason that there were few
buyers, but the business was kept up
till the call for troops was made and
then all the buyers were under arms
and the business died of itself.
/ used to stand and watch the
traffic in human beings when was
boy. There was nothing of heart
lessness, nothing of cruelty, nothing
of meanness in it. These people
had been reared to system, and the
system, if bad, was not of their
originating. They used to take the
newly bought slave and the first
thing they did was to feed him well
and tel! him where he was going.
They were liberal and generous,
those planters of the days before the
war. They used to take care of
their people, and they educated the
slaves and made them fit for some
thing. The best evidence we have
of this is that the generation which