Sales of Enslaved People in Court Square

Sales of Enslaved People in Court Square is a Virginia historical marker in Charlottesville County, dedicated 2024.

Charlottesville County · dedicated 2024 · E. Jefferson St. near intersection with 4th St. NE, at Court Square Park

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Between 1762 and 1865, auctioneers sold enslaved men, women, and children at various locations in Court Square: outside taverns, at the Jefferson Hotel, at the "Number Nothing" building, in front of the Albemarle Co. Courthouse (where sales were then recorded), and, according to tradition, from a tree stump. After Thomas Jefferson’s death, 33 enslaved people from his Monticello estate were auctioned at the Eagle Hotel in Jan. 1829 to satisfy his debts. Enslaved Charlottesville residents Fountain Hughes and Maria Perkins recalled Court Day sales as dreaded occasions that separated Black families. Such sales were frequent in Virginia, where the domestic slave trade was central to the economy.

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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On the National Register nearby

Places within about 300 feet of this marker that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby listing is not always the marker's own subject.