Opinion: Slaves not sold in Plaza market
GEOFF DOBSON
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 09/06/09
In the Aug. 25, edition of The Record under the heading, ÒCity vendor ordinance passes,Ó the writer makes reference to Òthe Slave Market.Ó In an earlier edition a letter writer also referred to the particular structure as the Òslave market.Ó As was noted in The Record in October 2007 by Dr. Susan Parker, a St. Augustine historian, the structure was not a slave market.
As early as 1890, journalist Charles Bingham Reynolds in his ÒStandard GuideÓ to St. Augustine explained:
ÒThe open structure on the east end of the Plaza is commonly pointed out as the ... Ôslave market,Õ ... It never was used ... as a Ôslave market,Õ ... The market (burned in 1887 and restored) was built in 1840; it was intended for a very prosaic and commonplace use, the sale of meat and other food supplies, and it was devoted to that use. A print of the town in 1848 shows the market thronged with men and women with baskets; and it is hardly worth while to point out that in those days purchasers did not carry home human chattels in baskets. The requirements of St. Augustine long since outgrew this primitive style of mart, and the Plaza market has become a lounging place where idlers bask in the sun and exchange gossip.
ÒIt was not until the influx of curiosity seeking tourists, after the Civil War that any one thought of dubbing the Plaza market a ... Ôslave market,ÕÓ according to Reynolds.
Slaves were, regrettably, sold in the city, but in another venue. In spite of Reynolds best efforts, Òfake historyÓ of St. Augustine has continued to plague the city.
Efforts to correct accounts of the cityÕs history in its various aspects have also been undertaken by Parker (now executive director of the St. Augustine Historical Society) and Dr. William Adams, the cityÕs recently retired Heritage Tourism director, but with little success. Such continued references to the public market only perpetuates our false history and has drawn to the market the likes of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
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Geoff Dobson is an attorney in private practice in St. Augustine. He was the city of St. AugustineÕs attorney for 18 years. He is a St. Augustine and western United States history writer. He has lived in St. Augustine since February 1977.
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