Thirty Years a Slave | Page 2

get you and take you to the trader's yard, ready to be sold." I saw
that to hesitate was useless; so I at once obeyed him and went.
* * * * *
A SLAVE MARKET.
The trader's establishment consisted of an office, a large show-room
and a yard in the rear enclosed with a wall of brick fifteen feet high.
The principal men of the establishment were the proprietor and the
foreman. When slaves were to be exhibited for sale, the foreman was
called to the office by means of a bell, and an order given him to bring
into the show-room all the slaves in the establishment. This was the
work of but a few minutes, and the women were placed in a row on one
side of the room and the men on the other. Persons desirous of
purchasing them passed up and down between the lines looking the
poor creatures over, and questioning them in about the following
manner: "What can you do?" "Are you a good cook? seamstress?
dairymaid?"--this to the women, while the men would be questioned as

to their line of work: "Can you plow? Are you a blacksmith? Have you
ever cared for horses? Can you pick cotton rapidly?" Sometimes the
slave would be required to open his mouth that the purchaser might
examine the teeth and form some opinion as to his age and physical
soundness; and if it was suspected that a slave had been beaten a good
deal he would be required to step into another room and undress. If the
person desiring to buy found the slave badly scarred by the common
usage of whipping, he would say at once to the foreman; "Why! this
slave is not worth much, he is all scarred up. No, I don't want him;
bring me in another to look at." Slaves without scars from whipping
and looking well physically always sold readily. They were never left
long in the yard. It was expected that all the slaves in the yard for sale
would be neatly dressed and clean before being brought into the
show-room. It was the foreman's business to see that each one was
presentable.
* * * * *
SLAVE WHIPPING AS A BUSINESS.
Whipping was done at these markets, or trader's yards, all the time.
People who lived in the city of Richmond would send their slaves here
for punishment. When any one wanted a slave whipped he would send
a note to that effect with the servant to the trader. Any petty offense on
the part of a slave was sufficient to subject the offender to this brutal
treatment. Owners who affected culture and refinement preferred to
send a servant to the yard for punishment to inflicting it themselves. It
saved them trouble, they said, and possibly a slight wear and tear of
feeling. For this service the owner was charged a certain sum for each
slave, and the earnings of the traders from this source formed a very
large part of the profits of his business. The yard I was in had a regular
whipping post to which they tied the slave, and gave him
"nine-and-thirty," as it was called, meaning thirty-nine lashes as hard as
they could lay it on. Men were stripped of their shirts in preparation for
the whipping, and women had to take off their dresses from the
shoulders to the waist. These whippings were not so severe as when the
slaves were stripped entirely of their clothes, as was generally the case

on the plantations where slaves were owned by the dozen. I saw many
cases of whipping while I was in the yard. Sometimes I was so
frightened that I trembled violently, for I had never seen anything like
it before.
* * * * *
SOLD IN THE MARKET.
I was only in the yard a short time before I was bought by one George
Reid who lived in Richmond. He had no wife, but an old lady kept
house for him and his three sons. At this time he had a place in the
postoffice, but soon after I came there he lost it. He then moved into the
country upon a farm of about one thousand acres, enclosed by a cedar
hedge. The house was a plain frame structure upon a stone basement
and contained four rooms. It was surrounded with shrubbery, and was a
pleasant country seat. But I did not like it here. I grieved continually
about my mother. It came to me, more and more plainly, that I would
never see her again. Young and lonely as I was, I could not help crying,
oftentimes for hours together. It was hard to get used to being away
from my mother. I remember well "Aunt Sylvia," who