Sales of Enslaved People in Court Square

Q-49

Between 1762 and 1865, auctioneers sold enslaved men, women, and children at various locations in Court Square: outside taverns, at the Jefferson Hotel, at the "Number Nothing" building, in front of the Albemarle Co. Courthouse (where sales were then recorded), and, according to tradition, from a tree stump. After Thomas Jefferson’s death, 33 enslaved people from his Monticello estate were auctioned at the Eagle Hotel in Jan. 1829 to satisfy his debts. Enslaved Charlottesville residents Fountain Hughes and Maria Perkins recalled Court Day sales as dreaded occasions that separated Black families. Such sales were frequent in Virginia, where the domestic slave trade was central to the economy.

Department of Historic Resources, 2024

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Richmond Enquirer, 30 Dec. 1828. Gayle M. Schulman, “Site of Slave Block?” The Magazine of Albemarle County History, vol. 58 (2000): 64-86. “The Business of Slavery at Monticello,” Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia (Monticello): https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/the-business-of-slavery-at-monticello/ Interview with Fountain Hughes, Baltimore, Maryland, June 11, 1949 (Library of Congress), 6 Nov. 1949. https://www.loc.gov/podcasts/slavenarratives/transcripts/slavery_hughes.pdf Account of Sale of Slaves from Thomas Jefferson's Estate, 1 Jan. 1829 (Monticello): https://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/2340 Maria Perkins to Richard Perkins, October 7. 1852, Folder 47. Box 3, U. B. Phillips Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/experience/family/pop_docs/doc4.html Albemarle County Deed Books, The Reginald D. Butler Local History Archive https://community.village.virginia.edu/cvhr/universalviewer/scans O Court Square Historic Survey, City of Charlottesville R. T. W. Duke Jr., “Recollections of My Early Life” (1899).