Slave Auction, Richmond, Virginia, 1853
Description
Shows a woman being auctioned in front of a crowd of white onlookers and bidders; other slaves to be auctioned in the background. This engraving was made from an eyewitness sketch by the English artist Eyre Crowe who observed the auction on March 3, 1853. This and another sketch (see image NW0278), Crowe reports, was took on the spot, and writes how the auctions take place in rooms on the ground floor. . . . Outside the doors are hung small garish flags of blood red, upon which are pinned small manuscript descriptions of the negroes to be disposed of . . . . . As you enter you see what we have endeavored to sketch . . . . an eye-bepatched and ruffianly-looking fellow in check trousers and grimy in every part of his person, with no hammer in his hand . . . [who] takes the swelling bids, . . . . with uplifted finger: he calls out the money bids up to 1200 dollars, which is generally the most a negro fetches (p. 314).
Source
The Illustrated London News (Sept. 27, 1856), vol. 29, p. 315.
Language
English
Rights
Image is in the public domain. Metadata is available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.
Identifier
NW0276
Spatial Coverage
North America--Virginia--Richmond
Citation
"Slave Auction, Richmond, Virginia, 1853", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed March 28, 2023, http://slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/1903
![Shows a woman being auctioned in front of a crowd of white onlookers and bidders; other slaves to be auctioned in the background. This engraving was made from an eyewitness sketch by the English artist Eyre Crowe who observed the auction on March 3, 1853. This and another sketch (see image NW0278), Crowe reports, was took on the spot, and writes how the auctions take place in rooms on the ground floor. . . . Outside the doors are hung small garish flags of blood red, upon which are pinned small manuscript descriptions of the negroes to be disposed of . . . . . As you enter you see what we have endeavored to sketch . . . . an eye-bepatched and ruffianly-looking fellow in check trousers and grimy in every part of his person, with no hammer in his hand . . . [who] takes the swelling bids, . . . . with uplifted finger: he calls out the money bids up to 1200 dollars, which is generally the most a negro fetches (p. 314).](http://slaveryimages.org/files/large/366b17495d31a9589a8e4c0b85761caad611b7b2.jpg)
