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THBSlave Markets & Jewish Cemetery, 1836 Savannah Letter
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About Auction
LiveApr 24, 2026
Day one of Fleischer's 2026 Spring premier auction includes early American artifacts, documents, signatures, ephemera, and weaponry. Rare material relating to African American history is featured, as well as fine examples of antique photography. Fleischer's Auctions info@fleischersauctions.com
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- Lot Description
“I began to calculate their value & made up my mind that in the space of 200 square feet, there most have been nearly one million of dollars worth of negroes…”
Autograph letter signed by Henry Frost Waring (1796-1874). [Savannah, Georgia], 17 April 1836. 3 pages, 4to. With address panel on integral leaf with "April 19, Savannah, Georgia" cancel, "Paid" stamp, and remnants of original wax seal.
An interesting 1836 letter written by New York merchant Henry Frost Waring (1796-1874) to his niece during his 6-month stay in Savannah, Georgia.
He opens with a description of a market where the enslaved could sell their wares, including his callous observation of their monetary value in the 1830s South: "we have a market within 200 feet of us where I strolled this (Sunday) morning, it being the morning when the negroes from the country congregate there to sell their little trifles. As I stood looking at the throng, I began to calculate their value & made up my mind that in the space of 200 square feet, there most have been nearly one million of dollars worth of negroes calculating them at $1,000 each which is about their value."
Interestingly, he includes sympathetic details of the Jewish Cemetery which was established by Mordecai Sheftall on 2 August 1773 from land granted to him in 1762 by King George III: "One place about a mile from the City where in the midst of the first the Jews have a burying is the sweetest place for flowers I ever saw and the natural flowering vines of their own free will are running on the brick graveyard fence. I almost envied the Jews their last resting place but concluded as they were generally despised above ground, they ought to have a good place under it."
He concludes his letter to his niece with some discussion of the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) and settlements in Florida: "We have no news here except Indian news and not much of that of late and I think of visiting St. Augustine before I return and if so, can tell you all about it when I see you about July 1st. Many of the places which sound large in the papers are not with seeing, I suppose, such as Picolata [Florida] which has but one house in it and that a tavern.
A fascinating letter with unusual details of Savannah life from the perspective of a Northerner.
[African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Jewish History, Judaica] [Seminole Wars, Florida Wars, Georgia, Florida]
Condition
small loss from wax seal original to letter.
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