Slaves Waiting to be Sold, Richmond, Virginia, 1853
Caption, Slaves waiting for sale, Virginia. An engraving taken from an eyewitness sketch by the English artist, Eyre Crowe who observed this scene on March 3, 1853. Crowe reports that the sketch was took on the spot, for which we narrowly escaped . . . being . . . ignominiously expelled. A brood of young ones are seen sitting on a rude bench, nestling close to their mother, who clasps the youngest in her embrace . . . . The auctioneer hauls them up one after the other to his stand, and so are they daily consigned to an unknown fate (p. 314). See also image NW0276. The engraving published in the ILN was cropped from a larger sketch done by Crowe. This sketch appears in his travel account of the United States which he visited from October 1852 to April 1853, With Thackeray in America (New York, 1893), p. 132. The book also includes additional details on the sale, after which, Crowe writes, aOoewe saw the usual exodus of negro slaves, marched under escort of their new owners across the town to the railway station, where they took places, and went South (p. 136). (Thanks to Maurie McInnis for her assistance with this and other images by Crowe.)
Image Title
Slaves Waiting to be Sold, Richmond, Virginia, 1853
RegID
SI-OB-725
Date
1853
Title
Slaves Waiting to be Sold, Richmond, Virginia, 1853
Source
The Illustrated London News (Sept. 27, 1856), vol. 29, p. 315.
Language
English
Item sets
Slave Sales & Auctions: African Coast & the Americas
Spatial Coverage
North America--Virginia--Richmond
Reproduced In
The Illustrated London News (Sept. 27, 1856), vol. 29, p. 315.
Researchers
Handler, Jerome; Tuite, Michael; Randall Ericson; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
26-Jan-15
Identifier
NW0278