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American Slavery: Slave Auction Catalog
American Slavery: Slave Auction Catalog
John G. Winter: Catalog of Negroes, mules, carts, wagons, etc., to be sold in Montgomery on the 23d instant at 10 o'clock, A.M. (1854)
The existence of this catalog starkly illustrates the status of the enslaved as being chattel.
This 1852 auction catalog lists 115 slaves by name with detailed descriptions of each, compiled by the proprietor. The catalog omits listing the other, non-human lots in the auction.
In the catalog the auctioneer David Owen states:
"This Catalogue will set forth plainly and frankly the merits and demerits of the Negroes and Mules, so far as the same comes within the knowledge of the owner, who holds himself responsible to that extent, and no farther. Taken as a whole, he ventures to assert, that so valuable and desirable a gang of Negroes, of the same number, has never been brought together upon any occasion."
In the catalog the proprietor John G. Winter states:
"The Proprietor wishes to state distinctly, that he has given a plain and unvarnished statement of the character, qualifications and health of each negro, to the best of his knowledge; and the purchasers must bid for them according to the estimate which each one may place upon his knowledge and candor, for he gives no guarrantee, except as to titles. He prefers to risk the price to be obtained, rather than incur the hazard of any future differences between Buyer and Seller, which might possibly arise from any real or supposed difference between his own candidly expressed opinions, and what the Purchaser might deem to be the facts. Purchases at the sales of dead mens estates are always made in this manner; the only difference in this case, being, that the Proprietor lives to be his own administrator. He hopes to live to see the Purchasrs well satisfied with the negroes, and he speaks for them the humane treatment which they have bad since he has owned them, and in most cases previously, and trusts they will be better satisfied with their future owners, than they appear to be at parting with their present one."
John G. Winter: Catalog of Negroes, mules, carts, wagons, etc., to be sold in Montgomery on the 23d instant at 10 o'clock, A.M. (1854)
The existence of this catalog starkly illustrates the status of the enslaved as being chattel.
This 1852 auction catalog lists 115 slaves by name with detailed descriptions of each, compiled by the proprietor. The catalog omits listing the other, non-human lots in the auction.
In the catalog the auctioneer David Owen states:
"This Catalogue will set forth plainly and frankly the merits and demerits of the Negroes and Mules, so far as the same comes within the knowledge of the owner, who holds himself responsible to that extent, and no farther. Taken as a whole, he ventures to assert, that so valuable and desirable a gang of Negroes, of the same number, has never been brought together upon any occasion."
In the catalog the proprietor John G. Winter states:
"The Proprietor wishes to state distinctly, that he has given a plain and unvarnished statement of the character, qualifications and health of each negro, to the best of his knowledge; and the purchasers must bid for them according to the estimate which each one may place upon his knowledge and candor, for he gives no guarrantee, except as to titles. He prefers to risk the price to be obtained, rather than incur the hazard of any future differences between Buyer and Seller, which might possibly arise from any real or supposed difference between his own candidly expressed opinions, and what the Purchaser might deem to be the facts. Purchases at the sales of dead mens estates are always made in this manner; the only difference in this case, being, that the Proprietor lives to be his own administrator. He hopes to live to see the Purchasrs well satisfied with the negroes, and he speaks for them the humane treatment which they have bad since he has owned them, and in most cases previously, and trusts they will be better satisfied with their future owners, than they appear to be at parting with their present one."
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