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AED[SLAVERY] 1855 Tennessee Slave Sale Broadside, Mother & Child
![[SLAVERY] 1855 Tennessee Slave Sale Broadside, Mother & Child](https://s1.img.bidsquare.com/item/xl/3545/35456938.jpeg?t=1VTtwp)
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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
CLERK’S SALE BROADSIDE ANNOUNCING THE COURT-ORDERED SALE OF ENSLAVED PERSONS, SHELBY COUNTY, TENNESSEE, 1855
Clerk's Sale. Letterpress broadside on paper. [Memphis, Tennessee]: Memphis Appeal Job Rooms, 1855. Period ink inscription dated "March 10th, 1855". Dated for sale Monday, April 2, 1855. Visible approx. 11 1/2 x 15 1/2 in., matted and framed to 19 1/8 x 23 3/8 in.
This sobering broadside announces a “Clerk’s Sale” conducted pursuant to a decree of the County Court of Shelby County, ordering the public auction of enslaved individuals to satisfy outstanding debts of the estate of W. B. Alexander, deceased. Issued by Clerk John P. Trezevant, the broadside forcefully illustrates the routine employment of judicial authority to liquidate human property within antebellum probate and debt-collection proceedings.
The sale, scheduled to take place at the courthouse door in Raleigh, Tennessee, specifies the offering of Beck, an enslaved woman, together with her child Emily, dispassionately recording their identities only insofar as they functioned as assets of the estate.
Printed by the Memphis Appeal Job Rooms, the broadside demonstrates the internal Southern slave economy. Tennessee, a border state with deep commercial ties to the Mississippi River trade, frequently saw such court-mandated sales, particularly involving the forced separation of families under the guise of probate necessity.
Ephemeral by nature, broadsides of this type were intended for temporary public display and were rarely preserved.
VERY RARE, POSSIBLY UNIQUE. We traced no copies that have ever sold at auction. OCLC lists 0 copies.
Note: This lot cannot be packaged and shipped in-house. Successful bidders winning items marked as being packaged and shipped by a third-party service are responsible for paying the third party directly. We are happy to offer complimentary drop-off service to local third-party packing/shipping companies in Columbus, Ohio.
[Broadsides, Ephemera, Printing, Posters, Handbills, Documents, Newspapers] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]
Condition
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