The Weeping Time: Largest Slave Auction in American History

On March 2–3, 1859, at the Ten Broeck Race Course outside Savannah, Georgia, 436 enslaved people — men, women, children, and infants — were sold over two days to settle the debts of Pierce Butler, a Philadelphia socialite. It was the largest single slave auction in American history. The enslaved people had been held at the track in horse stalls for days beforehand in cold and rain. Reporter Mortimer Thompson of the New York Tribune attended and documented the auction. Families begged to be sold together; some requests were granted, most were not. The auction grossed over $300,000. Survivors called it 'the Weeping Time.' Butler used proceeds to pay gambling debts.