Broadside for a New Orleans auction of 18 enslaved persons from Alabama: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A single-sheet broadside with bold serif font typeface advertising an auction for the sale of eighteen slaves. It consists of black printed text on off-white paper. The top of the broadside reads "SLAVES! / Long Credit Sale / of / Plantation Hands / from Alabama, without reserve.” The broadside lists the sale location as the St. Louis Hotel and the date the sale is to take place as March 25, 1858. It then lists the names, ages and skills of the individuals being sold. A disclaimer in the middle of the broadside reads “All of the above Slaves are from the State of Alabama, and sold under / a full guarantee, except the defects above stated. The bottom portion of the broadside lists additional enslaved people being sold at this auction. At the bottom of the broadside an additional disclaimer and terms of sale are listed.

George, 23, plantation hand and carriage driver; to be sold with his wife Martha, 30 and their four children, Ned, 7, Nancy 6, Horace, 4, and Mary, 1

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1858
• Printed by: Unidentified
• Subject of: Norbert Vignie
• Type: broadsides
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 18 11/16 × 8 11/16 in. (47.5 × 22 cm)
• Place used: New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States, North and Central America
• Place depicted: Alabama, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Agriculture
• Topic: Children
• Topic: Commerce
• Topic: Domestic life
• Topic: Domestic slave trade
• Topic: Families
• Topic: Finance
• Object number: 2011.155.305
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public Domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.