Background
On March 2 and 3, 1859, at a racetrack in Savannah, Georgia, 436 enslaved men, women, and children were sold at auction. It was the largest slave auction in U.S. history. Most of the enslaved people sold during the auction had lived and worked on the same plantation for their entire lives. But their enslaver was in debt and needed cash quickly, so their lives and community were upended. The trauma of the auction was so great that the sale was remembered as “the weeping time” by the Black community.
Enslaver Pierce Mease Butler made $303,850 dollars from the sale, equivalent to over $10 million today. The success of the sale speaks to the country’s continued investment in the institution of slavery as a way to cheaply produce the raw materials needed in the factories of the North.
Documents
(Untitled)
Document Text
“What’s the matter with the gal? Has she got a headache?”
“What’s the fault of the gal? Ain’t she sound? Pull off her rags and let us see her.”
“Who’s going to bid on that nigger, if you keep her covered up. Let’s see her face.”
Summary Text
“What’s the matter with her? Does she have a headache?”
“What’s wrong with her? Isn’t she healthy? Pull off the shawl and let us see her.”
“No one will bid on her if she is covered up. Show us her face.”
Teaching Materials
Suggested Activities
Explore Relevant Themes
Discover more Units
1977 - 2001End of the Twentieth Century
0 Items- 1977 - 2001
End of the Twentieth Century
43 ItemsStudy the experiences of women as technology, globalization, and increasingly polarized politics shaped the nation.
1889 - 1920Modernizing America
63 ItemsDiscover how women experienced and shaped immigration, industrialization, progressivism, and suffrage at the turn of the 20th century.
1866 - 1904Industry and Empire
42 ItemsConsider women’s rights at the end of the 19th century as the nation redefined the boundaries and privileges of citizenship.
1948 - 1977Growth and Turmoil
42 ItemsConsider how women of diverse backgrounds contributed to and were shaped by an era of escalating political activism and rapidly shifting social norms, from the dawn of the Cold War through the apex of the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment.
You are Here
1820 - 1869Expansions and Inequalities
50 ItemsExamine what Westward Expansion meant to the diverse women living within and outside of the expanding nation’s borders, how women responded to the burgeoning immigration debate, and the roles women played in the early years of the Industrial Revolution.
1492 - 1734Early Encounters
67 ItemsDiscover the lives and experiences of Native American, African, and European women who encountered one another on America’s shores.
1920 - 1948Confidence and Crises
47 ItemsExplore dramatic shifts in American society and culture from the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the dawn of the /topic/confidence-and-crises_post-war/ era.
1692 - 1783Colonies and Revolution
70 ItemsTrace the development of colonial society and identity up through the crucible of the American Revolution.
1832 - 1877A Nation Divided
50 ItemsDelve into the ways women participated in all aspects of the Civil War, and on both sides, from the early debate over the expansion of slavery through Reconstruction.
1776 - 1831Building a New Nation
50 ItemsExplore the foundation of the new nation, the ways women’s rights were suppressed under the new government, and how women were central to the formation of the new American identity.