Charleston's Broad Street Slave Auction Site: Largest Slave Market in North America

By 1750, the area at the east end of Broad Street and East Bay Street in Charleston, South Carolina — at and around the Watch House, later the site of the Old Exchange Building (opened 1772) — had become the primary auction site for enslaved people in North America. By a law of 1710, the east end of Broad Street was designated the authorized site for market activity. Enslaved people arriving through Sullivan's Island were quarantined, inspected, and then brought to the waterfront wharves and surrounding streets for public auction. Buyers examined enslaved people's teeth, skin, muscles, and hands; women were stripped and inspected for reproductive capacity. Families were routinely separated by sale. Charleston was the entry point for approximately 40 percent of all enslaved Africans brought to mainland North America.