February 15, 1850
Here is a series of letters, between a free colored woman, a Mr. Harnard, Esq., of New York, and Bruin & Hill, slave dealers from Alexandria. Mrs. Nancy Cartwright, who has purchased her own freedom, and some of her children from slavery, receives a letter from a daughter, Emily Russell, pleading for her mother to come and get her, because she fears that she “may go away” soon. Mr. Harnard has received a copy, and writes to Mr. Joseph Bruin, and inquires about the price by which he might sell the daughter to her mother. The reply, from Bruin & Hill, from Alexandria, dated Jan 31, 1850, says, in part: “All I have to say about the matter, is that we paid very high for the negroes, and cannot afford to sell the girl Emily for less than EIGHTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. This may seem a high price to you, but cotton being very high, consequently slaves are high. We have two or three offers for Emily from gentlemen from the South. She is said to be the finest looking woman in this country. … We expect to start South with the negroes on the 8th of February, and if you intend to do any thing, you had better do it soon.”
The editor comments: “Henry Clay proposes to bind the North not to interfere with such accursed transactions as are here developed. What say the people of the North?
June 28, 1850
From the Cleveland True Democrat, is a story of a colored woman, mother of little children, bound hand and foot, taken for shipment to “the Southern market”
July 2, 1852
Under the Refuge of Oppression, from the Parish of St. Charles, Louisiana, is a legal document announcing the sale of property purchased by James H. and Samuel McCutcheon. A full column and one-half of the paper lists the names, gender, ages, skills, color of a large number of people who were sold. A great many are listed as negro, negress, mulatto.
April 29, 1853
The announcement begins, with this sarcasm from the editor: “We congratulate the business public of Boston on opening a new branch of trade. The attention of capitalists and men of enterprise, generally, is invited to the following advertisement in the Courier of Tuesday last.” The ad, announces “A rare chance for capitalists! FOR SALE – THE PULASKI HOUSE, at Savannah, and Furniture, and a number of PRIME NEGROES, accustomed to hotel business….” The editor comments: “Who knows but Sims is one of the ‘prime negroes’ thus offered to Boston enterprise..”
June 24, 1853
A brief item indicates that “notwithstanding all the precautionary measures of the English and American government to suppress the slave trade, about thee thousand slaves from the coast of African were landed near Havana, between the 27th of May and the 7th of June…”
January 13, 1854
The editor introduces extracts from this “timely, able and fearless speech”, Dec. 21, 1853, in the U. S. House. “Certain Cuban slave dealers” have asked for payment for the loss of their slaves in the Amistad case. Some members of Congress have recommended to the President that he give favorable consideration of the those claims. After recounting the history of the Amistad case, Giddings, in his speech comments: “We ask no favors at the hands of those who advocate the slave trade, and I will frankly say to them, that I apprehend they will recede from the position which the President has assumed; that they will not dare sustain him.” He urges that “he who holds ‘that this Government was constituted to secure the right to life, liberty, and happiness’ to the people, will never vote to prostitute its powers to encourage the slave trade, to maintain oppression, or dishonor our race.”
January 5, 1855
An article from the N. Y. Evangelist tells of a ship, recently in the harbor, which was discovered to be “taking in boards and materials suited for laying a slave deck…a libel was filed against the vessel and cargo, and she is now in the custody of Mr. Hillyer, The United States Marshal.”
July 25, 1856
An article from the New York Journal of Commerce tells of the continuing slave trade.
“We are informed by the Deputy U. S. Marshalls, that they are well satisfied that at least fifteen slave vessels have sailed from this port within the last twelve months, and three within the last three weeks!…..It appears obvious that the slave trade, as conducted at the present time, and for many years past, must continue while the markets of Cuba are open.”
May 8, 1857
From a private letter comes an account of the witnessing of a slaver “captured by the Arab off the coast of Cuba”.
August 14, 1857
From Cairo, Illinois, is an article about a band of people who have been capturing free negroes, taking them across the Mississippi River to the Missouri shore, and selling them. It tells of two men who were recently taken by a gang; “one of them swam the River, and returned naked to Cairo, beaten and horribly mangled about the head.”
