Raux, Bernard.

Interstate domestic slave trading in the United States was already well established by 1808 when the importation of slaves from other countries was abolished. Interstate slave trading was erratically controlled by the states and by 1850 completely unregulated. Traders in the Upper South maintained agencies and representatives in the Lower South. The seaboard and border states exported an estimated twenty-five thousand slaves a year, with Virginia the largest source. Water transport was occasionally used, but more often slaves were marched overland to markets such as New Orleans and Natchez (the two largest markets), where they commanded prices that at least quadrupled between 1800 and 1860.

These papers document a business partnership between slave traders Bernard Raux, Paul Pascal, and Nathaniel Currier. Documents show slaves purchased in Norfolk, Virginia, and transported to slave markets in New Orleans, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi.

From the guide to the Bernard Raux slave trade papers, 1828-1836., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)