Slave markets and slave jails in the United States

Common card · No. 316682

Slave markets and slave jails in the United States were places used for the slave trade in the region, a practice inherited from the American colonial period, from the founding of the United States in 1776 until the total abolition of slavery in 1865. Slave pens, also known as slave jails, were used to temporarily hold enslaved people until they were sold, or to hold fugitive slaves, and sometimes even to "board" slaves while traveling. Slave markets were any place where sellers and buyers gathered to make deals. Some of these buildings had dedicated slave jails, others were negro marts to showcase the slaves offered for sale, and still others were general auction or market houses where a wide variety of business was conducted, of which "negro trading" was just one part. The term slave depot was commonly used in New Orleans in the 1850s. Slave trading was often done in business clusters where many trading firms operated in close proximity. Such clusters existed on specific streets (such...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain