On a sunny morning in mid-October, Harold Singletary stood before a teal cover draped over a building located on one of Charleston, South Carolina’s most renowned architectural streets. As a Black businessman, it was unforeseen for him to be present for such an occasion along a street he had frequently walked without knowing its full history.
Singletary was preparing to address an audience gathered to unveil a historical marker revealing that the elegantly restored antebellum building behind him had once housed an auction firm that, in 1835, conducted the largest domestic slave sale in United States history, selling 600 enslaved individuals in total.
This new marker is significant because the streets, once vibrant with businesses integral to the slave trade, often do not share this narrative with passersby. Singletary, who grew up in Charleston—a city that was historically the nation’s busiest slave port—reflected on how racial atrocities there have largely been ignored by white locals until recent times.
Before delivering his speech, Singletary took a moment to embrace Lauren Davila, a stranger to him who, in 2022, uncovered an advertisement for the sale of 600 individuals while studying as a graduate student at the College of Charleston. A ProPublica reporter subsequently traced this sale to John Ball Jr., a wealthy plantation operator, which helped Singletary connect his own ancestry to those sold and facilitated further research into the destinies of these individuals.
Prior to Davila’s discovery, the largest recorded U.S. slave auction was in 1859, just outside Savannah, Georgia, approximately 100 miles down the Atlantic coast from Charleston, where 436 individuals were sold.
A small group worked together to establish the marker that Singletary was set to unveil. “This is a big moment in representing ancestors,” Singletary declared, indicating that among those auctioned by the firm at that location were the mother and grandparents of an ancestor he deeply respects, to the point of naming his enterprise, BrightMa Farms, in her honor. The company’s corporate office is just a short stroll away.
Singletary emphasized, “America has to face some hard facts,” noting, “And those facts change stories that change narratives.” He expressed gratitude to those who contributed to altering the narrative, including the owner of the building at 24 Broad Street, who consented to display the marker.
Stephen Schmutz, an attorney who purchased the two-story building in 1989 and has operated his law firm there, was unaware of its history as a slave auction house. Reflecting on this, Schmutz noted the irony, having been educated in segregated schools and only encountering classmates who were people of color upon attending law school. Influenced by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights movement, Schmutz’s awareness of segregation’s injustices was heightened.
Schmutz, who represented victims’ families from the 2015 Emanuel AME Church massacre where a white supremacist killed nine Black individuals, praised efforts to acknowledge the city’s true historical narrative.
The marker, approximately two feet in height, is inscribed with the words: “SLAVE AUCTIONS OF THE DOMESTIC SLAVE TRADE.” It notes that the auction firm Jervey, Waring & White, which occupied the building from 1828 to 1840, was part of a surrounding network of similar enterprises, including banks and insurance companies.
Davila’s journey of discovery began in March 2022 while she was reviewing newspaper archives as part of an internship. She was astonished to come across a classified ad dated February 24, 1835, announcing the sale of “A very valuable GANG OF NEGROES,” totaling 600 individuals experienced in rice cultivation.
Although the ad was succinct, further investigation by a ProPublica reporter revealed a more detailed advertisement published earlier that month. This ad disclosed that the sale was part of an estate auction for John Ball Jr., a descendent of a slave-owning family, whose plantation and enslaved people were up for sale following his death.
Ball’s descendant, Edward Ball, authored “Slaves in the Family,” a bestseller published in 1998, uncovering family history often muted by narratives portraying slaveholders as kind. This book traced descendants of those enslaved by his ancestors, including Singletary.
The research received support from the College of Charleston’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Margaret Seidler, a white Charlestonian who, at 65, discovered slave traders in her ancestry. Seidler has been working to identify other slave trading families, including those behind Jervey, Waring & White.
Seidler wrote a book about her findings and has been urging fellow white Charlestonians to contribute to an honest account of the city’s slave history. Together with historian Bernard Powers, they advocated for the installation of the marker. “Truth can be a tonic,” Seidler remarked.
