Old Courthouse - Sold on the Steps of Justice Re-Do – The Last Slave Sale
- Item sets
- AFAM Historic Sites
- Title
- Old Courthouse - Sold on the Steps of Justice Re-Do – The Last Slave Sale
- Description
- On New Year’s Day of 1861, one of the last slave sales took place on the Courthouse steps in St. Louis, Missouri. For decades, enslaved people would be sold on these steps as their owners found themselves bankrupt or facing death. Citizens would gather around and watch as enslaved people of all ages would be taken out one by one and humiliated in front of everyone as white men would bid on them. Throughout the year 1861, at least four more sales took place, the last known one being on May 4th where six slaves were sold. The final slave sales were momentous as they demonstrated the decline in the St. Louis area in the support of slavery.
- Creator
- Alyssa Vargas-Lopez
- Semester
- Intro to Public History
- Subject
- Historic Marker Nominations
- Enslaved People
- Slavery
- St. Louis History
- Courthouse
- African American History and Experience
- Racism
- Last Slave Sale
- Language
- English
- Publisher
- UMSL Digital Humanities Lab
- Date
- 2020