The Great Slave Auction

The Great Slave Auction

On 2 and 3 March 1859, the Great Slave Auction (also called the “Weeping Time”) was an auction of enslaved Americans of African descent held at Ten Broeck Race Course, near Savannah, Georgia, in the United States. Slaveholder and absentee plantation owner Pierce Mease Butler authorised the sale of approximately 436 men, women, children, and infants to be sold over the course of two days. The sale’s proceeds went to satisfy Butler’s significant debt, much from gambling. The auction was considered the largest single sale of slaves in United States history until the 2022 discovery of an even larger auction of over 600 slaves in Charleston, South Carolina.

The slaves were taken to Savannah by steamboat and train and housed in the racecourse stables. They huddled together, eating and sleeping on the floor. From February 26 until March 1, the slaves were inspected by prospective buyers like cattle at an action. The buyers poked, pinched, and fondled the slaves, opening their mouths to inspect their teeth. Slaves were also examined for ruptures or defects on their bodies that might affect their productivity.

Slavery in the Cape, South Africa

In 1652, the Dutch East India Company (in Dutch the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie – VOC) established a halfway station and trading base at the Cape. A few years later, the first enslaved people were imported, and the Cape remained a slave society for 176 years until slavery was abolished in 1834.

The form of slavery used in the Cape Colony and the Americas is called chattel slavery. Chattel slaves were obtained in the lands of their birth and taken against their will to different places where they were sold again. These people were and could be resold, just as it is done with property such as homes and cars today. Slaves had no say about to whom they could be sold.

Because slaves were regarded as property, it is difficult to speak about slavery without using dehumanising words such as commodity, cargo and owner to describe the system.

“Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.” – Nelson Mandela.

Castro Khwela
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