Digital x Slavery:
The New Orleans
Slave Sample, 1804-1862
(and Instructional Materials)
Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman. New Orleans Slaves Sale Sample, 1804-1862, compiled by Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman, University of Rochester, 2008.
Slaves Awaiting Sale, New Orleans, 1861
Source
The Illustrated London News (Jan-June, 1861), vol. 38, p. 307. (Copy in Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library)Comments
Caption, "Slaves for Sale: A Scene in New Orleans." Shows formally dressed men, with top hats, and women, presumably house servants, waiting to be sold; sign over doorway reads "T. Hart Slaves." According to the article in the ILN, "The accompanying engraving represents a gang of Negroes exhibited in the city of New Orleans, previous to an auction, from a sketch made on the spot by our artist. The men and women are well clothed, in their Sunday best-- the men in blue cloth . . . with beaver hats; and the women in calico dresses, of more or less brilliancy, with silk bandana handkerchiefs bound round their heads . . . . they stand through a good part of the day, subject to the inspection of the purchasing or non-purchasing passing crowd . . . . An orderly silence is preserved as a general rule at these sales, although conversation does not seem to be altogether prohibited "(The Illustrated London News [p. 307]). The same image appears a few years later in Harper's Weekly (Jan. 24, 1863,p. 61), with the caption "A Slave Pen at New Orleans Before the Auction"; there is no accompanying explanation for this image which appears to have been taken from the Illustrated London News.
James W. Oberly, New Orleans Slave Sample, 1804-1862 [Instructional Materials], Ann Arbor, MI, 2002.
Summary:
“This study includes data on slave sales that occurred on the New Orleans slave market between 1804-1862. For each sale, information was recorded on the date of the sale, the number of slaves on the invoice, the geographical origin of the buyer and seller, the sale price, and characteristics of the slaves sold (age, sex, family relationship, and occupation). The information presented for each transaction was obtained from the notarized bills of sale in the New Orleans Notarial Archival Office. These bills often contained information on several persons who were sold in a group or as a “lot.” Whenever feasible, sale and personal characteristics of individuals appearing in such groups were entered on separate records. This was usually done when separate sale prices were recorded for each member of the group. When separate prices were not recorded for children sold in a group, information describing those children was attached to the record of a principal slave with whom they were associated on the original bill of sale.”
Slave Auction, New Orleans, 1839
Source
James Buckingham, The Slave States of America (London, 1842), vol. 1, facing title page (Copy in Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library)Comments
Caption, "Sale of Estates, Pictures and Slaves in the Rotunda, New Orleans." James Buckingham visited New Orleans for about a month in early 1839. During this period he went to one of the city's grander hotels, the St. Louis hotel, sometimes called the French Exchange. Within this hotel was the "Rotunda," a very large and ornate room in which auctions are held "for every description of goods." During his visit several auctioneers were competing with each other and selling various "goods," among them slaves. "These consisted," he wrote, "of an unhappy negro family, who were all exposed to the hammer at the same time. Their good qualities were enumerated in English and in French, and their persons were carefully examined by intending purchasers, among whom they were ultimately disposed of, chiefly to Creole buyers . . . The middle of the Rotunda was filled with casks, boxes, bales, and crates; the negroes exposed for sale were put to stand on these, to be the better seen by persons attending the sale" (pp. 334-335).
Advertisement for Slave Sale, New Orleans, May 13, 1835
Source
Collection of the New York Historical Society, # 46628; published in E.D.C. Campbell and K.S. Rice, eds., Before Freedom Came: African-American Life in the Antebellum South (Univ. Press of Virginia, 1991), fig. 100, p. 116.Comments
Broadside advertising sale of 10 slaves, giving their names and personal attributes. Slaves are being sold because of owner's departure from New Orleans. (Permission to display on website, courtesy of the New York Historical Society.)
Emancipated Slaves, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1864
Source
Harper’s Weekly, vol. 8 (Jan. 1864), p. 69. (Copy in Special Collections, University of Virginia Library)Comments
Captioned, “Emancipated Slaves, White and Colored,” this engraving is derived from a photograph taken in New York City. It shows 3 adults (Wilson Chinn [60 yrs], a former plantation worker, branded on his forehead; Mary Johnson [no age given], a former cook in New Orleans, showing the scars of mistreatment; Robert Whitehead [no age given], a former house and ship painter and ordained preacher), and 5 children (Charles Taylor [8 yrs], Augusta Broujey [ 9 yrs], Isaac White [8 yrs], Rebecca Huger [11 yrs], Rosina Downs [7 yrs]), with the notation that the children “are from the schools established in New Orleans, by order of Major-General Banks.” These persons were liberated by the Union Army and were brought from New Orleans to New York by a Union Army officer and Philip Bacon, the latter had “established the first school in Louisiana for emancipated slaves”; the children were among his pupils. The accompanying article gives details and brief biographical sketches of each person including for the children descriptions of their “racial” characteristics and notes on their family connections.
Black Nursemaid, New Orleans, 1873-74
Source
Edward King, The Great South (Hartford, Conn., 1875), p. 30 (Special Collections, University of Virginia Library)Comments
Describing New Orleans, the author reports that "the negro nurses stroll on the sidewalks, chattering in quaint French to the little children of their former masters--now their 'employers' "(p.30). Original sketch made by J. Wells Chamney who accompanied the author during 1873 and the spring and summer of 1874. Although relating to the post-emancipation period, the scene evokes the later ante-bellum years.
Poultry Vendor, New Orleans, 1873-74
Source
Scribner's Monthly (Nov.1873-Apr.1874), vol. VII, p. 147. (Copy in Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library)Comments
Caption: "The French Market-The Hen Trader"; shows a woman vendor with basket, holding a chicken, a girl by her side, and boy who has apparently purchased two chickens. Also published in Edward King, The Great South (Hartford, Conn., 1875), p. 49 who describes this scene on his visit to the market in New Orleans.
A Female House Servant, New Orleans, ca. 1840
Source
Published in E.D.C. Campbell and K.S. Rice, eds., Before Freedom Came: African-American Life in the Antebellum South (Univ. Press of Virginia, 1991), plate 3, p. 10; painting in the Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans.Comments
Oil painting showing upper torso and head of female household servant, wearing the mandatory "tignon" or kerchief. The subject of this painting is only identified as a maid of the Douglas family in New Orleans. "A New Orleans city ordinance required all black female residents to wear a kerchief . . . over their heads" (Campbell and Rice, p. x).
Free Woman of Color, New Orleans, 1844
Source
Published in E.D.C. Campbell and K.S. Rice, eds., Before Freedom Came: African-American Life in the Antebellum South (Univ. Press of Virginia, 1991), plate 4, p. xi.Comments
Oil painting by Adolph Rinck, a German artist of a "femme de couleur libre," wearing an elaborate kerchief or "tignon." "The subject is possibly Marie Laveau, the famous voodoo priestess" (Campbell and Rice, p. xi). The University Art Museum, Lafayette, Louisiana holds the painting.
In 2002, James W. Oberly published “instructional materials” to use in conjunction with the data set.
“These instructional materials were prepared for use with NEW ORLEANS SLAVE SALE SAMPLE, 1804-1862 (ICPSR 7423), compiled by Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman. The data file (an SPSS portable file) and accompanying documentation are provided to assist educators in instructing students about the economics of slavery and the lives of the people recorded in the slave market. An instructor’s handout is also included. This handout contains the following sections, among others: (1) general goals for student analysis of quantitative datasets, (2) specific goals in studying this dataset, (3) suggested appropriate courses for use of the dataset, (4) tips for using the dataset, and (5) related secondary source readings.”
More information on the data set is available here. The instructional materials are available here. Members of Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research institutions can download the SPSS datasets and use them immediately (for more information click here).
X-Posted at African Diaspora, Ph.D.