The slave trade was a familiar sight throughout the South. African Americans were bought and sold at public auction, as depicted here, and at private sales. Between 1820 and 1860, some one million slaves entered the interstate slave trade that supplied labor to the booming Cotton South. Perhaps twice as many slaves were sold locally. In the “American Slave Market,” the artist captures the buyers, traders, and slaves at the precise moment of sale. In this painting, the buyers—the well-dressed gentlemen in top hats—who gather around the auctioneer show no regret or embarrassment, only anticipation. One hopeful purchaser wears a more casual hat, perhaps indicating that he is a poorer man who was seeking to purchase his first slave.

The artist also depicts the slave traders, or “Negro speculators” as contemporaries called them. The auctioneer stands in the center with what appears to be a bill of sale. The other traders wear more casual clothes, indicating that they are not of the same social class as the buyers. One trader holds a long switch in case the slaves get out of line. Long before the auction began, the traders would have been busy preparing their merchandise for market. They fattened slaves, plucked grey hairs, and provided slaves with clean clothes to convince buyers that their slaves were young, healthy, and had years of work left in them.

Every slave dreaded the appearance of a slave trader at the gate of the plantation. Falling into the hands of a trader meant separation from family, probably for life, and a new existence under an unknown master. The men, women, and children huddled on the ground are clearly anxious about their fates. Whether any of these women are the mothers of the children portrayed here is unclear. In any case, traders often sold children separately and by the pound. The male slave standing in the middle of the group wears what appears to be a kind of skirt, which may suggest his African origins and perhaps his intransigence.

The contrast between the eager white gentlemen and the miserable slaves could not be starker. But the artist complicates the simple composition of white and black by adding a black man to the group of potential buyers and a black woman who is probably a slave, walking by with a basket on her head, observing the cruel drama.

Source: © Chicago History Museum, USA / The Bridgeman Art Library

Questions for Analysis

Connect to the Big Idea

Why were slave sales crucial to the smooth function of the slave economy?