Slave Market


The Plaza and Old Slave Market, St. Augustine, Florida. The building with the open front is the old slave market of the oldest city in the United States, St. Augustine. Many southern cities had slave markets like this one, where men, women, and children were sold at auction. The sales were conducted just as auctions of cattle are now managed. The highest "bidder" (the man offering the most money) became the owner of the negro being sold. Sometimes mothers and children, husbands and wives were separated forever. You must not suppose that this was always the case, or that slaves were always badly treated, for that is not true. Many Southern people kept their slave families together and treated them so well that the slaves loved their owners. Slaves were first brought to this country in 1619. Later the invention of the cotton gin made cotton raising very profitable and slave help was necessary in the fields. This made the Southern people unwilling to give up their slaves, for they believed that they could not succeed without slave labor. Since the freeing of all slaves the South has grown more and more prosperous. More money is made in raising cotton now, with free, paid laborers, than was ever made when slaves did the work. In every country where both ways have been tried, "paid labor" has proven more profitable than slave labor. Why is this true? Name some great men and women of both the North and South who were opposed to slavery. St. Augustine was settled by Spaniards in 1565. Not far from this old slave market is the spot where Ponce de Leon landed in his search for "The fountain of youth." The city is now a fashionable winter resort.

Photographer:	Unknown	Date:	Unknown
Publisher & City:	Keystone View Company: Meadville, Pa., New York, NY., Chicago, Ill., London, England
Series & Number:	26980

Scan courtesy of Roy Winkelman. Image retouched and converted to anaglyph in 2005 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. View this image using 3D glasses with the blue lens over the left eye and the red lens over the right eye.


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