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The sale began-young girls were there,

Defenseless in their wretchedness,

Whose stifled sobs of deep despair

Revealed their anguish and distress.

And mothers stood, with streaming eyes,

And saw their dearest children sold;

Unheeded rose their bitter cries,

While tyrants bartered them for gold.

And woman, with her love and truth-

For these in sable forms may dwell-

Gazed on the husband of her youth,

With anguish none may paint or tell.

And men, whose sole crime was their hue,

The impress of their Maker's hand,

And frail and shrinking children too,

Were gathered in that mournful band.

Ye who have laid your loved to rest,

And wept above their lifeless clay,

Know not the anguish of that breast,

Whose loved are rudely torn away.

Ye may not know how desolate

Are bosoms rudely forced to part,

And how a dull and heavy weight

Will press the life-drops from the heart.

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The Slave Auction by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | Poetry Foundation

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The sale began-young girls were there, Defenseless in their wretchedness, Whose stifled sobs of deep despair Revealed their anguish and distress. And mothers stood, with streaming eyes, And saw their dearest children sold; Unheeded rose their bitter cries, While tyrants bartered them for gold.

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Very soon the Yankee teachers
    Came down and set up school;
But, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,-
    It was agin' their rule.

Our masters always tried to hide
    Book learning from our eyes;
Knowledge didn't agree with slavery-
    'Twould make us all too wise.

But some of us would try to steal
    A little from the book,
And put the words together,
    And learn by hook or crook.

I remember Uncle Caldwell,
    Who took pot-liquor fat
And greased the pages of his book,
    And hid it in his hat.

And had his master ever seen
    The leaves up on his head,
He'd have thought them greasy papers,
    But nothing to be read.

And there was Mr. Turner's Ben,
    Who heard the children spell,
And picked the words right up by heart,
    And learned to read 'em well.

Well, the Northern folks kept sending
    The Yankee teachers down;
And they stood right up and helped us,
    Though Rebs did sneer and frown.

And, I longed to read my Bible,
    For precious words it said;
But when I begun to learn it,
    Folks just shook their heads,

And said there is no use trying,
    Oh! Chloe, you're too late;
But as I was rising sixty,
    I had no time to wait.

So I got a pair of glasses,
    And straight to work I went,
And never stopped till I could read
    The hymns and Testament.

Then I got a little cabin-
    A place to call my own-
And I felt as independent
    As the queen upon her throne.

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Very soon the Yankee teachers Came down and set up school; But, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,- It was agin' their rule. Our masters always tried to hide Book learning from our eyes; Knowledge didn't agree with slavery- 'Twould make us all too wise.

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Biography of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

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Born in Baltimore, poet, fiction writer, journalist, and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was the only child of free African American parents. She was raised by her aunt and uncle after her mother died when Frances was three years old.

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The electrifying speeches of Sojourner Truth - Daina Ramey Berry

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Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | Fighting for the Rights of All | Ballot & Beyond

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Timeline of the Abolitionist Movement

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Addressing a Formal Letter

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Formal letters are often used to communicate with officials, authorities, professional contacts and hiring managers. This article explains what a formal letter, how to address one and provides examples of how formal letters should be addressed.

What is a formal letter?

Formal letters are used for formal communications and follow a precise and professional format. Formal letters always begin with an address that includes sender and recipient contact information, the date and a salutation.
Knowing how to address a formal letter is important for professional or official communications. Documents that typically include a formal letter address include:

A letter that begins with a properly formatted formal address shows the recipient that its contents are important and consequential. Most formal letters serve as records of important conversations, requests or agreements.

What to include in a formal letter address

This information establishes the formal tone of your letter and tells the recipient that you expect a response. When addressing formal letters, always include the following information in this order:

1. Your contact information, including your full name, company name, job title, address, phone number and email

2. The date you sent the letter

3. The recipient's contact information, including their full name, company name, job title, address, phone number and email

4. A salutation, such as "Dear," the recipient's name and a colon

Related: How To Write a Formal Letter

How to address a formal letter

Follow these key steps when addressing a formal letter:

1. Alignment and margins

Begin your formal letter address in the top left corner of the page, and keep all the text aligned to the left. Left-aligned text is easier to read than right-aligned or centered because the English language reads left to right. The margins for a formal letter are typically 1 to 1-1 ¼ inches on the sides, top and bottom.

2. Start with your contact information

You want your recipient to immediately know who you are, where you work and your return address. You can use either a business or home address. Depending on where you are sending it from. Here's how it should look: :

Line 1: Full name

Line 2: The company you work for, if applicable

Line 3: Your street address

Line 4: Your city, state (abbreviated) and ZIP code

Line 5: Your country if you are writing to someone in a different country

Line 6: Your phone number and/or email address

Follow your contact information with a full line of space before continuing with the next line of text.

3. Write the date

Write the full date. Spell out the month and use numbers for the day and year. This information proves when you wrote, signed and sent the letter and serves as an important record for legal documents, contracts and agreements.

Example: February 21, 2020

Place another full line of space after the date.

4. Include the recipient's contact information

List your recipient's professional contact information to indicate who the letter is for and to create a connection. Format this information the same way you did yours:

Line 1: Full name, including degrees

Line 2: The company they work for, if you are writing a formal business letter

Line 3: The company's street address

Line 4: The city, state and ZIP code

Line 5: The country if you are writing to someone in a different country

Line 6: Their phone number and/or email address

Including all of your recipient's information to avoid confusion. Follow it with another full line of space.

5. Include an "attention" line, if necessary

If you are writing to a business, include an "attention" line to specify the individual or department that you want to read the letter. Place the "attention" line a full space after the recipient's contact information and before the salutation.

Related: How To Address a Letter To a Business

7. Choose a salutation

Begin your letter with a polite and professional salutation, or greeting, such as "Dear," followed by the recipient's title and last name and a colon. Only address the person by their first name if you know them well.

Example: Dear Dr. Hennings:

Titles include "Mr.," "Ms.," "Mrs.," "Dr.," "Honorable," "the Reverand." and "Professor." If your recipient is female and you are unsure whether she is married, choose "Ms." rather than "Mrs." or "Miss." If she has a professional title, such as "Officer," use that instead of "Ms.," "Miss" or "Mrs." Remove the title and state the recipient's full name if you don't know their gender.

Example: Dear Pat Corres:

Only use generic salutations such as "To whom it may concern," "Dear Sir/Madam" or "Dear Hiring Manager" if you do not have a contact person.

After you have addressed your letter, you can begin the introduction on the next line, followed by the body paragraph(s), conclusion and signature.

Related: Business Letter Format and Example

Formal letter address template

If you're unsure how to address a formal letter, use this template:

[Sender's name]
[Sender's company or employer]
[Sender's address]
[Sender's city, state and ZIP code]
[Sender's email address and phone number]

[Date written]

[Recipient's name]
[Recipient's company or employer]
[Recipient's address]
[Recipient's city, state and ZIP code]
[Recipient's email address and phone number]

[Greeting name:]

Formal letter address examples

Review the following examples to help you when creating your own formal letter address:

Addressed to an individual

Here is an example of a properly addressed formal letter to an individual:
Parker Cary, MD Dear Dr. Cary:
Hammond Memorial Hospital January 14, 2019 Attn: Jen Curio Greetings Human Resources Department:
712 Industrial Drive
Greensboro, NC 27401**919-376-3944
Addressed to a business

Here is an example of a properly addressed formal letter to a business:

How to address the envelope

Use a business-sized (#10) envelope for all mailed letters. Typed information is preferred. Fold your letter into thirds. Include the following on the front of the envelope:
Your return address (name, address, city, state and ZIP code) in the top left corner
Recipient's name and address (contact person, company, address, city, state and ZIP code)
Make sure the right amount of postage is placed in the top right corner.
Do not include any phone information or email addresses on the envelope.

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How To Address a Formal Letter Step By Step (With Template)

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Formal letters are often used to communicate with officials, authorities, professional contacts and hiring managers. This article explains what a formal letter, how to address one and provides examples of how formal letters should be addressed. What is a formal letter? Formal letters are used for formal communications and follow a precise and professional format.

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In early March 1859 an enormous slave action took place at the Race Course three miles outside Savannah, Georgia. Four hundred thirty-six slaves were to be put on the auction block including men, women, children and infants. Word of the sale had spread through the South for weeks, drawing potential buyers from North and South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana. All of Savannah's available hotel rooms and any other lodging spaces were quickly appropriated by the influx of visitors. In the days running up to the auction, daily excursions were made from the city to the Race Course to inspect, evaluate and determine an appropriate bid for the human merchandise on display.

The sale's magnitude was the result of the break-up of an old family estate that included two plantations. The majority of the slaves had never been sold before. Most had spent their entire lives on one of the two plantations included in the sale. The rules of the auction stipulated that the slaves would be sold as "families" - defined as a husband and wife and any offspring. However, there was no guarantee that this rule would be adhered to in all cases.

The sale gained such renown that it attracted the attention of Horace Greeley, Editor of the New York Tribune, one of America's most influential newspapers at the time. Greeley was an abolitionist and staunchly opposed to slavery. He sent a reporter to cover the auction in order to reveal to his readers the barbarity inherent in one human being's ability to own and sell another.

"The slaves remained at the race-course, some of them for more than a week and all of them for four days before the sale. They were brought in thus early that buyers who desired to inspect them might enjoy that privilege, although none of them were sold at private sale. For these preliminary days their shed was constantly visited by speculators. The negroes were examined with as little consideration as if they had been brutes indeed; the buyers pulling their mouths open to see their teeth, pinching their limbs to find how muscular they were, walking them up and down to detect any signs of lameness, making them stoop and bend in different ways that they might be certain there was no concealed rupture or wound; and in addition to all this treatment, asking them scores of questions relative to their qualifications and accomplishments.

All these humiliations were submitted to without a murmur and in some instances with good-natured cheerfulness - where the slave liked the appearance of the proposed buyer, and fancied that he might prove a kind 'mas'r.'

The following curiously sad scene is the type of a score of others that were there enacted:

'Elisha,' chattel No. 5 in the catalogue, had taken a fancy to a benevolent looking middle-aged gentleman, who was inspecting the stock, and thus used his powers of persuasion to induce the benevolent man to purchase him, with his wife, boy and girl, Molly, Israel and Sevanda, chattels Nos. 6, 7 and 8. The earnestness with which the poor fellow pressed his suit, knowing, as he did, that perhaps the happiness of his whole life depended on his success, was interesting, and the arguments he used were most pathetic. He made no appeal to the feelings of the buyer; he rested no hope on his charity and kindness, but only strove to show how well worth his dollars were the bone and blood he was entreating him to buy.

'Look at me, Mas'r; am prime rice planter; sho' you won't find a better man den me; no better on de whole plantation; not a bit old yet; do mo' work den ever; do carpenter work, too, little; better buy me, Mas'r; I'se be good sarvant, Mas'r. Molly, too, my wife, Sa, fus rate rice hand; mos as good as me. Stan' out yer, Molly, and let the gen'lm'n see.'

Molly advances, with her hands crossed on her bosom, and makes a quick short curtsy, and stands mute, looking appealingly in the benevolent man's face. But Elisha talks all the faster.

'Show mas'r yer arm Molly - good arm dat mas'r - she do a heap of work mo' with dat arm yet. Let good mas'r see yer teeth Molly - see dat mas'r, teeth all reg'lar, all good - she'm young gal yet. Come out yer Israel, walk aroun' an' let the gen'lm'n see how spry you be.'

Then, pointing to the three-year-old girl who stood with her chubby hand to her mouth, holding on to her mother's dress, and uncertain what to make of the strange scene.

'Little Vardy's on'y a chile yet; make prime gal by-and-by. Better buy us mas'r, we'm fus' rate bargain" - and so on. But the benevolent gentleman found where he could drive a closer bargain, and so bought somebody else..."

"The buyers, who were present to the number of about two hundred, clustered around the platform; while the Negroes, who were not likely to be immediately wanted, gathered into sad groups in the background to watch the progress of the selling in which they were so sorrowfully interested. The wind howled outside, and through the open side of the building the driving rain came pouring in; the bar down stairs ceased for a short time its brisk trade; the buyers lit fresh cigars, got ready their catalogues and pencils, and the first lot of human chattels are led upon the stand, not by a white man, but by a sleek mulatto, himself a slave, and who seems to regard the selling of his brethren, in which he so glibly assists, as a capital joke. It had been announced that the Negroes would be sold in "families," that is to say; a man would not be parted from his wife, or a mother from a very young child. There is perhaps as much policy as humanity in this arrangement, for thereby many aged and unserviceable people are disposed of, who otherwise would not find a ready sale...

...The expression on the faces of all who stepped on the block was always the same, and told of more anguish than it is in the power of words to express. Blighted homes, crushed hopes and broken hearts was (sic) the sad story to be read in all the anxious faces. Some of them regarded the sale with perfect indifference, never making a motion save to turn from one side to the other at the word of the dapper Mr. Bryan, that all the crowd might have a fair view of their proportions, and then, when the sale was accomplished, stepping down from the block without caring to cast even a look at the buyer, who now held all their happiness in his hands. Others, again, strained their eyes with eager glances from one buyer to another as the bidding went on, trying with earnest attention to follow the rapid voice of the auctioneer. Sometimes, two persons only would be bidding for the same chattel, all the others having resigned the contest, and then the poor creature on the block, conceiving an instantaneous preference for one of the buyers over the other, would regard the rivalry with the intensest (sic) interest, the expression of his face changing with every bid, settling into a half smile of joy if the favorite buyer persevered unto the end and secured the property, and settling down into a look of hopeless despair if the other won the victory...

The auctioneer brought up Joshua's Molly and family. He announced that Molly insisted that she was lame in her left foot, and perversely would walk lame, although, for his part, he did not believe a word of it. He had caused her to be examined by an eminent physician in Savannah, which medical light had declared that Joshua's Molly was not lame, but was only shamming. However, the gentlemen must judge for themselves and bid accordingly. So Molly was put through her paces, and compelled to trot up and down along the stage, to go up and down the steps, and to exercise her feet in various ways, but always with the same result, the left foot would be lame. She was finally sold for $695. (equivalent to approximately $15,300 in today's dollars)

Whether she really was lame or not, no one knows but herself, but it must be remembered that to a slave a lameness, or anything that decreases his market value, is a thing to be rejoiced over. A man in the prime of life, worth $1,600 (equivalent to approximately $35,200 in today's dollars) or thereabouts, can have little hope of ever being able, by any little savings of his own, to purchase his liberty. But, let him have a rupture, or lose a limb, or sustain any other injury that renders him of much less service to his owner, and reduces his value to $300 or $400, and he may hope to accumulate that sum, and eventually to purchase his liberty. Freedom without health is infinitely sweeter than health without freedom.

And so the Great Sale went on for two long days, during which time there were sold 429 men, women and children. There were 436 announced to be sold, but a few were detained on the plantations by sickness...

The total amount of the sale foots up $303,850." (equivalent to approximately $6,700,000 in today's dollars)

References:
New York Daily Tribune, March 9, 1859 reprinted in Hart, Albert B., American History Told by Contemporaries v. 4 (1928).

How To Cite This Article:
"Slave Auction, 1859", EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2005).

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In early March 1859 an enormous slave action took place at the Race Course three miles outside Savannah, Georgia. Four hundred thirty-six slaves were to be put on the auction block including men, women, children and infants. Word of the sale had spread through the South for weeks, drawing potential buyers from North and South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana.

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Objective 2 -- The Abolitionist Movement

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AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | The Abolitionists, Part 2, Chapter 1 | PBS