Joseph S. Donovan | |
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Born | Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | April 20, 1800
Died | April 15, 1860 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | (aged 59)
Other names | J. S. Donovan |
Occupation(s) | Slave trader, slave jailor |
Joseph S. Donovan (April 20, 1800 – April 15, 1861) was an American slave trader known for his slave jails in Baltimore, Maryland. Donovan was a major participant in the interregional slave trade, building shipments of enslaved people from the Upper South and delivering them to the Deep South where they would be used, for the most part, on cotton and sugar plantations. As one Baltimore historical researcher and tour guide summarized, "the change from raising tobacco to wheat in the region caused a surplus of labor, whereas the South needed more labor due to the invention of the cotton gin".[1] Donovan, in company with Austin Woolfolk, Bernard M. Campbell, and Hope H. Slatter, have been described as one of the "tycoons of the slave trade" in the Upper South, "responsible for the forced departures of approximately 9000 captives from Baltimore to New Orleans."[2]