January 1750

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 newly arrived through Sullivan's Island were quarantined, inspected, and then brought to these waterfront wharves and the 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 — the enslaved person's value was calculated purely as labor or reproductive capital, and buyers' preferences determined who would be sold away from parents, spouses, and children. Charleston was the entry point for approximately 40 percent of all enslaved Africans brought to mainland North America, and the Broad Street market was where the trade in human beings was conducted at its most concentrated.

Throughout the colonial period, the sale of enslaved people without regard for family bonds was both legally sanctioned and commercially routine. Enslaved people had no legal standing to resist sale or separation; marriages between enslaved people held no legal validity; and children of enslaved women were born enslaved regardless of the father's status. Charleston's slave market at Broad Street and East Bay regularly sold husbands away from wives and children from mothers, reflecting buyers' preferences and enslavers' financial calculations. Runaway slave advertisements from the period document the frequency of families sundered by sale: descriptions of enslaved people who had fled mention they were 'believed to be going to [named location] where they have a wife' or 'where his children were sold.' Planters sometimes deliberately separated family members to prevent coordinated resistance. The sexual exploitation of enslaved women by enslavers and overseers — which produced enslaved children who were simultaneously the enslaver's biological offspring and his legal property — was endemic, unaddressed by colonial law, and represented a specific form of violence with no legal remedy for its victims.

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.

Throughout the colonial period, the sale of enslaved people without regard for family bonds was both legally sanctioned and commercially routine. Enslaved people had no legal standing to resist sale or separation; marriages between enslaved people held no legal validity; and children of enslaved women were born enslaved regardless of the father's status. Charleston's slave market at Broad Street and East Bay regularly sold husbands from wives and children from mothers. Runaway slave advertisements document the frequency of families sundered by sale: descriptions of enslaved people who had fled mention they were believed to be going to locations where they had a wife or where their children had been sold. Planters sometimes deliberately separated family members to prevent coordinated resistance. The sexual exploitation of enslaved women by enslavers and overseers — which produced enslaved children who were simultaneously the enslaver's biological offspring and his legal property — was endemic and unaddressed by colonial law.

Through the first half of the eighteenth century, enslaved African people in the colonies developed sophisticated strategies for maintaining African cultural traditions while adapting to colonial conditions. Forbidden by law in most colonies from using drums — which colonial authorities correctly understood as communication tools — enslaved people developed substitutes: hand-clapping, foot-stomping, and the body-percussion practice of patting juba. Ring shout worship — a shuffling circular dance to chanting and handclapping that preserved West African religious movement — was practiced in brush arbor gatherings away from white surveillance. Enslaved Muslims maintained prayer practice in secret. African naming traditions, foodways, medicinal plant knowledge, and craft techniques (basket-weaving from specific West African traditions survives to the present day in South Carolina's Gullah-Geechee community) were transmitted across generations. Praise houses and informal gatherings became sites of community formation and information-sharing. Enslavers tried to disrupt African cultural continuity by mixing people from different ethnic groups to prevent communication, but cross-group bonds formed anyway.

Through the first half of the eighteenth century, enslaved African people developed sophisticated strategies for maintaining African cultural traditions while adapting to colonial conditions. Forbidden from using drums in most colonies — which authorities correctly understood as communication tools — enslaved people developed substitutes: hand-clapping, foot-stomping, and body-percussion. Ring shout worship — a shuffling circular dance to chanting and handclapping preserving West African religious movement — was practiced in brush arbor gatherings away from white surveillance. Enslaved Muslims maintained prayer in secret. African naming traditions, foodways, medicinal plant knowledge, and craft techniques (basket-weaving from specific West African traditions survives to the present in South Carolina's Gullah-Geechee community) were transmitted across generations. Praise houses and informal gatherings became sites of community formation. Enslavers tried to disrupt African cultural continuity by mixing people from different ethnic groups, but cross-group bonds formed anyway.