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Historical Document Letter from Henry Tayloe on the domestic slave trade |
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Click here for the text of this historical document. Following the termination of the international slave trade in 1808, an extensive domestic trade opened between the older slave states such as Virginia and Maryland, and the new territories, such as Mississippi and Alabama. Cotton cultivation was pushing west, into the new southern territories, and plantation owners were desperate for slaves to work the crops.
In this letter from Henry A. Tayloe to "Dear Brother" [B.O. Tayloe], Henry tries to convince his brother to sell some of his slaves. Henry was a slave trader; his brother, a plantation owner living in Virginia. Henry wrote, "The present high price of Negroes can not continue long and if you will make me a partner in the sale on reasonable terms I will bring them out this Fall from VA and sell them for you and release you from all troubles." (This letter was provided by historian William Scarborough.)
Related Entries:
• A slave experience of being sold south
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