Slave Trading in Louisville
Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Slave Trading in Louisville. By the 1850s, Kentucky was annually exporting between 2500 and 4000 of its slaves down river to the large plantations farther south. To prevent runaways, traders operating near the Ohio River kept slaves shackled together in pens when not being displayed to buyers. Slave traders were often social outcasts avoided by all but fellow traders. (Reverse) Garrison Slave Pen Site - Matthew Garrison was a well known Kentucky slave speculator in the Deep South. A white abolitionist leader, Rev. Calvin Fairbank, wrote in 1851 that four slave markets, including Garrison's and Arterburn's, sold men, women, and children "like sheep." Slavery abolished by 13th Amendment, 1865. Presented by Louisville and Jefferson County African American Heritage Committee, Inc.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
By the 1850s Kentucky was shipping thousands of enslaved people each year down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Deep South plantations. Traders operating near the Ohio kept people shackled in pens between sales, and even in a slaveholding society these dealers were often shunned as social outcasts. On this site the speculator Matthew Garrison ran one of four Louisville slave markets that an abolitionist minister said sold men, women, and children "like sheep," until the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865.
Why it matters
Louisville was a hub of the river-borne domestic slave trade, and this site marks the commerce in human beings that fractured families across the antebellum South.
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Related people
- · Matthew Garrison
- · Calvin Fairbank
Related events
- · Abolition of slavery by the 13th Amendment
Themes & tags
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