The Weeping Time: A History of the Largest American Slave Auction

theatlantic.com

111 points·ryan_j_naughton··5 comments

The journals of Fanny Kemble, mentioned in the article, can be found on the Internet Archive here:

https://archive.org/details/journalofresiden00kemb_0

and the eyewitness description of the sale, "Great Auction Sale of Slaves at Savannah, Georgia", is here:

https://archive.org/details/whatbecameofslav00does

> including a man named Jeffrey who attempts to entreat his buyer to purchase a woman named Dorcas, his fiancee, only to eventually be rebuffed when the buyer finds out he would have to purchase her whole family to acquire her.

The slaves were sold as family units, not individuals. But since Jeffrey was only engaged to Dorcas and not actually married, he was sold separately. To buy Dorcas the new owner would have had to buy her whole family since they were all sold together.

Family units only considered husband/wife and minor children. Older children and adult siblings or grandparents were separated from their relatives.

It doesn't feel like the country has changed that much in attitude especially in acquitting those slave transporters.

Also, stories like that are always a good reminder of the pitfalls of "jury nullification"...

Consider that the US government is now considering separating children from their parents if caught crossing the southern border. The intent is explicitly to deter the crossing, the idea being that knowing you may be separated from your kids may keep you on the south side. But for that deterrent to be credible, they actually have to do the separations.

Or they could, you know, go back to Honduras and be murdered. Together.

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