October 30, 2014
BIO: Donald Sweig, who retired in 2002 after more than 27 years as the county historian for Fairfax County, holds a Ph.D. in American history from the College of William and Mary. This article is drawn from his earlier scholarly, statistical analysis of the Alexandria-to-New Orleans slave trade, which was awarded the Charles Thomson Prize by the National Archives of the United States, and The Organization of American Historians, and from his doctoral dissertation "Northern Virginia Slavery." He is an occasional contributor to The Connection Newspapers.
Stories this photo appears in:
Alexandria to New Orleans: The Human Tragedy of the Interstate Slave Trade, Part III
Part III: The extent of the forced separation and sale of young slave children away from their mothers has long been a vexing question, and historians have often been especially concerned with this issue. In 1931, the historian Frederick Bancroft asserted that "the selling singly of young [black slave] children privately and publicly was frequent and notorious." He added that such children were "hardly less than a staple in the [interstate slave] trade."
Alexandria to New Orleans: The Human Tragedy of the Interstate Slave Trade, Part II
Part II: Franklin and Armfield’s slave-trading “establishment” was located near the outskirts of what was then, in the 1830s, the town of Alexandria. The main building was three stories, handsomely painted, with green blinds.
Alexandria to New Orleans: The Human Tragedy of the Interstate Slave Trade, Part I
This is the first article in a four-part series.
Part I: On May 17, 1828, the following advertisement appeared in the Alexandria Phoenix Gazette: Cash in Market~ The subscribers having leased for a term of years the large three story brick house on Duke Street, in the town of Alexandria, D.C. formerly occupied by Gen. Young, we wish to purchase one hundred and fifty likely young negroes of both sexes, between the ages of 8 and 25 years.
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