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Museum object · Slavery and Freedom Objects

Broadside for an auction of enslaved persons at the Charleston courthouse

1859

Charleston, Charleston County, South Carolina, United States, North and Central America

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Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A broadside advertising a court-ordered slave of enslaved persons at the courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 10, 1859. The paper is printed in black ink with hand-written annotations along columns printed with the first names and ages of ninety-nine [99] enslaved men, women, and children. The names are numbered and grouped together into subsets. Large printed text at top reads, [UNDER DECREE IN EQUITY. / SANDERS vs. SANDERS, et al]. The handwritten notations make remarks like "healthy," "very fine," "sold privately," "dead," "shot in leg," "breeding," "leg broke," "lost a toe," "white," and "mostly white.

Sources & collection details

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — original record ↗

Source collection ↗

Catalog metadata · CC0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

Catalog reference: 2010.21.3

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