Slave Auction Site

In the geographical heart of Richmond’s slave trading district, cobblestone streets led to large brick hotels where dealers kept first-floor offices and buyers rented upstairs rooms. The St. Charles Hotel on this corner was one of the major sales sites, with Bell Tavern, later known as the City Hotel, adjacent and the Exchange and Ballard hotels nearby. Public auctions were generally held in the biggest first-floor room, and a red flag above the roof alerted buyers and occasional European tourists that a sale was to occur. Nearby in the muddy valley of Shockoe Creek were the slave holding facilities, reached by a maze of damp, foul-smelling dirt alleyways. More than 50 such facilities stood there, and Lumpkin’s Jail, known as the Devil’s Half Acre, was the largest and most infamous, containing the harshest slave jail for punishing runaway and recalcitrant slaves. An archaeological investigation is underway there and at the adjacent Negro Burial Ground and Richmond City Gallows sites as part of an effort to understand the historical footprint of slavery in Richmond.

Richmond, Virginia · United States