Negroes Wanted: Newspaper Classified Ads Compilation

Chilling compilation of historical newspaper classified advertisements documenting the domestic slave trade through multiple "Negroes Wanted" notices. This page features several ads from slave traders seeking to purchase enslaved people, including R.W. Lucas advertising for "A LARGE NUMBER OF NEGROES WANTED!" seeking "SOUND & HEALTHY Negroes OF BOTH SEXES" with "FAIR PRICE IN CASH" paid at his jail; Northcutt, Marshall & Co. seeking enslaved people for their "Woolen Factory of Messrs. Thompson & Van Dalsen"; and notices offering to pay "the highest prices offered in the city" for enslaved people of both sexes. The casual placement of these human trafficking advertisements alongside notices for building lots and other property reveals how normalized slavery had become in American commerce. These classified ads appeared regularly in newspapers throughout the South, treating the buying and selling of human beings as routine business transactions no different from real estate or livestock sales. A stark document of slavery's complete integration into everyday American commerce, available in three sizes with your choice of black or silver aluminum frame.