Existing comment:
The Slave Auction
Prices of slaves varied widely over time. They rose to a high of about $1,250 during the cotton boom of the late 1830s, fell to below half that level in the 1840s, and rose to about $1,450 in the late 1850s. Males were valued 10 to 20 percent more than females; at age ten, children's prices were about half that of a prime male field hand.
Images of slave auctions show the barbarity of a practice where human beings were treated as if they were farm animals or merchandise. |