Nolan: Slaves were sold in Plaza market

DAVID NOLAN
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 09/27/09


Back in the 1980s I got a telephone call from Henry Twine, who was then a city commissioner and would go on to become the first black vice mayor of St. Augustine. He was troubled because one of his fellow city commissioners kept saying, "No slave was ever sold in the Slave Market."

Twine had a deep love for history (he would play a leading role in getting the state to acquire the site of Fort Mose, the pioneer free black settlement from the 1700s), and he wanted to know if his fellow commissioner spoke the truth.

Since Twine had been generous over the years in sharing his historic knowledge with me -- particularly about the civil rights movement -- I quickly agreed to go and check the records for him.

Here is what I found:

In 1834 there was an advertisement for an estate sale "at the market House in the City of St. Augustine" of "A very prime gang of 30 Negroes, accustomed to the culture of Sugar and Cotton."

In 1836, "two slaves with their increase if any are to be sold at Public Auction to the highest bidder at the Market House."

In 1838, "negro woman Sally" was to be auctioned to settle the Mary Hanford estate "at the Market House."

It was also used as a place of punishment. In 1840, a slave named Peter was "to receive fifteen lashes, in the market, on his bare back." In 1849, another was sentenced to "39 stripes on his bare back in the public market."

In those days, white citizens were "summoned to meet at Market House" and patrol north and south from there to "apprehend all slaves or free persons of color, who may be found in the streets thirty minutes after the ringing of the Bell without having a proper pass from their masters or guardians."

The Deed Books, newspapers, and City Council minutes in the decades before the Civil War provide many similar examples.

When Twine showed this evidence to his fellow commissioner, he was never again told that "No slave was ever sold in the Slave Market."

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David Nolan is a St. Augustine historian and author.


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