slave auctions
Bondage market events
Slave auctions were public sales where enslaved people were bought and sold as property.
Buyers inspected human beings like livestock, examining teeth, muscles, and scars before bidding.
Families were routinely separated.
The term now serves as a stark reference point for the dehumanization inherent in chattel slavery: The museum recreated a slave auction to show visitors the horror of the trade.
Transatlantic slave trade crossing
- antebellumBefore a war's start
- plantationsLarge-scale farming operations
- abolitionistsThose opposing human bondage
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
triangular trade · Underground Railroad · Dred Scott · 13th Amendment · Civil War · Harriet Tubman · Frederick Douglass · Sojourner Truth
Loathsome, detestable thing
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- disgraceLoss of honor
- ignominyState of dishonor
- dishonorLoss of respect
degradation · dehumanization · exploitation · cruelty · atrocity · injustice · suffering · trauma
Middle Passage
Transatlantic slave trade crossing
- antebellumBefore a war's start
- plantationsLarge-scale farming operations
- abolitionistsThose opposing human bondage
emancipation · triangular trade · Underground Railroad · Dred Scott · 13th Amendment · Civil War · Harriet Tubman · Frederick Douglass · Sojourner Truth · Nat Turner
abomination
Loathsome, detestable thing
dishonor · degradation · dehumanization · exploitation · cruelty · atrocity · injustice · suffering · trauma · commodification
- slaverybondage, chattel, thrall, Middle Passage, slaveholders
- Antebellum Southplantation, cotton kingdom, overseer, big house, plantation owner
- slave tradeleg irons, human cargo, triangle trade, chattel, manacles
- colonial slaveryplantation system, bondage, servitude, manumission, plantation labor
- Abolitionismabolitionists, abolitionist movement, antislavery, abolitionism, Frederick Douglass
- Abolitionabolitionists, Frederick Douglass, abolitionist movement, Underground Railroad, Emancipation Proclamation
slave auctionsemancipation
Release from legal bondage
manumission · abolition · liberation · freedom · Emancipation Proclamation
slave auctionsjob fairs
Employer-candidate meetups for hiring
collective bargaining · labor unions · wage labor · employment contracts · hiring halls
slave auctionshuman dignity
Intrinsic worth of persons
justice · reparations · reconciliation · restorative justice · memorial sites
slave, slaves, slaved, slaving, slavish, slavishly, slavery, enslaved, enslave