Great Slave Auction

Pierce Mease Butler, whose slaves were sold in the auction, and his wife, Frances Kemble Butler, c. 1855

The Great Slave Auction (also called the Weeping Time[1]) was an auction of enslaved Americans of African descent held at Ten Broeck Race Course, near Savannah, Georgia, United States, on March 2 and 3, 1859. Slaveholder and absentee plantation owner Pierce Mease Butler authorized 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.[2] The auction was considered the largest single sale of slaves in U.S. history until the 2022 discovery of an even larger auction of 600 slaves in Charleston, South Carolina.[3]

  1. ^ Kwesi, DeGraft-Hanson (January 1, 2010). "Unearthing the Weeping Time: Savannah's Ten Broeck Race Course and 1859 Slave Sale". Southern Spaces. 2010. doi:10.18737/M76K6J. ISSN 1551-2754.
  2. ^ Bailey, Anne C. (2017). The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 3. doi:10.1017/9781108140393. ISBN 978-1-108-14039-3. Archived from the original on March 2, 2023. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
  3. ^ Hawes, Jennifer Berry (June 16, 2023). "How a Grad Student Uncovered the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S." ProPublica. Retrieved June 19, 2023.