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to a steep decline in tobacco markets. This decline precipitated widespread changes to the local economy. As planters shifted production from the labor-intensive and soil-exhausting cultivation of tobacco to wheat, they found themselves with an excess of enslaved laborers. At the same time, Eli Whitney’s 1793 invention of the cotton gin, a machine that allowed processers to easily and efficiently separate cotton from its seeds, encouraged the expansion of American agricultural lands beyond the Mississippi River. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the cession and seizure of American Indian lands in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia in later decades significantly increased the number of acres available for agricultural production.
In the half century following America’s 1808 abolition of the international slave trade, growing demands for laborers triggered the forced migration of an estimated one million people. As the volume of individuals being sent south increased, so too
A.	A Slave-Pen at New Orleans—before the Auction
wood engraving from Harper's Weekly
January 24, 1863
195S.43.24
B J. A. Beard and May auction notice for “a Valuable Gang of Georgia and South Carolina Field Hands”
New Orleans: Bulletin Print, 1856 2074.0377
C.	Slave collar with bells
between 1800 and 1865; iron and brass courtesy of the Holden Family Collection
D.	Slave Auction
ca. 1831; ink and watercolor 7947.3
UNLIMITED CREDIT SALE
OT* -A.
Valuable Gang of Georgia and South Carolina
^ Aka
AND A WASHER AND IRQNER, AND DINING ROOM SERVANT.
J. A. BEARD, Auctioneer.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1856.
A^rr V2 O’CLOCK,
Will be sold at AUCTION, at Banks’ Arcade, without limit,
The following described Slave*, to-vrit:
1.	MARY, aged 18 years, a field hand.
2.	HARRIET, aged 21 veai*, do
3.	MAIIALA, aged 2K wars, do
4.	PRISCILLA,aged My'n, do D. LEWIS, aged 24 years do
6.	EDMUND, aged 26 wars, do
7.	JOHN, aged 22 years. do
do
do and fair cook, do do do do and wagoner, do and hewer, do
8.	JOHN WILKINSON, aged 2? years. No. 1 dining-room servant.
9.	SAM. aged 30 years, field hand anti wagoner.
10.	ELIZABETH, aged 20 year..; line washer and ironer, and fair cook.
11.	MARY JANE, aged 22 years, -i good field hand.
12.	LYDIA, aged 28 years.	do	do
18. BCRREL. aged 23 years, 1 field hand.
14. WILLIS, aged 23 years, extra No. I field hand.
15. LMUE1VK, aged 23 years, a No. 1 French and American cook and good washer atfd ironer, and her child Mam Am U years.
10. FRIDAY, aged 24 years, cotton field hand, slightly ruptured. All fully guaranteed against the vices and maladies prescribed by law.
Twelve months credit for approved city acceptances or endorsers, with interest of 7 per cent, per annum from date.
Acte of sale before Win. Shannon. Notary Public, at the expense of tho purchasers. The Slaves can be soon by applying at the office df jhc Auctioneer.
^ "^BULLETIN PRINT, 37 (VRM1ER ST.
Spring 2015
3