This chapter discusses how slave traders treated enslaved people as commodities by stripping them of their identities and histories and packaging them as products for market. Traders used techniques like lying about enslaved people's backgrounds and origins, tightly regulating their physical appearance and presentation, and even kidnapping free people to sell them into slavery. The document outlines several case studies of individuals like Solomon Northup and Albert Young who were denied their freedom and sold multiple times. It argues that by reducing people to categories and using rituals to prepare their physical appearance, slave traders fully objectified and commodified enslaved human beings to maximize their profits from sales in the slave market.
2. 1. Title page→ Where the title and description of our presentation is based on.
2. Table of Contents → Current page
3. Chapter Thesis Statement→ The thesis statement for Chapter Four: Turning People into Products.
4. Section One→ A story illustrated by Svea Kennedy describing the horrible kidnapping of Solomon
Northup.
5. 12 Years A Slave → A brief explanation of Solomon Northup’s story.
6. Slave trader’s lies→ Some of the lies slave traders told.
7. Lies→ Used to convert humans into currency.
8. Conclusion →Solomon Northup conclusion
9. Section Two→ A story illustrated by Marilyn Connolly describing the story of Eulalie.
10. Eulalie’s Story→ A brief explanation of Eulalie’s story.
11. Faults in the System→ A description of relevance to the thesis and Antebellum period.
12. Section Three→ A story illustrated by Danielle Avalos describing the story of Albert Young.
13. Albert Young’s Story→ A brief description of Albert Young’s life and story.
14. Conclusion→ Relation to the thesis
15. Section Four→ A story illustrated by Gloria Ramos describing the preparation of slaves for the market.
16. Preparation Rituals→ Description of the rituals practiced.
17. Conclusion→ Relation to the thesis.
18. Thanks! → Final slide of the presentation.
Contents of this presentation
3. Chapter Thesis Statement
“In the daily practice of the slave pens, slaves were treated as physical
manifestations of the categories the traders used to select their slaves-
No. I, Second Rate, and so on. After gathering individuals into
categories and attributing to those categories an independent existence
in “the slave market” by which they could be compared to all other
categories (and all other goods), the traders turned those categories
around and used them to evaluate the individuals of whom they were
supposedly composed.”
Walter Johnson. Soul By Soul. Page 118
4. 01
Story of
Solomon
Northup
Soloman Northup was a free
man kidnapped and then sold
into slavery.
Presented By: Svea Kennedy
Note: please click audio icon if
audio does not play.
5. None of these stolen people
could have been sold if their
histories were known, so they
were sold with new ones. These
were only the most extreme
cases of the creative power of
the traders' market practice.
(1818)
—Walter Johnson. Soul
by Soul
Note: Please click
on audio icon to
listen
Video credit: SearchlightPictures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS
MFQ1lTzog&feature=emb_logo
6. New OrleansWashingto
n
12 Years a Slave
Solomon lived
and worked with
his family in New
York.
Solomon was
tricked into going
to Washington,
drugged, and
then put on a
boat to New
Orleans.
Solomon was
sold into slavery
by Theophilus
Freeman
New York
7. Northup remembered that Freeman used his
slaves' own hopes to fund his inducements.
Instructing Northup to hold up his head and look
"smart," Freeman told Northup that he "might,
perhaps, get a good master" if he "behaved."37
(1,831) Walter Johnson. Soul by Soul
Slave trader’s lies
“By detaching slaves from their history and replacing human singularity
with fashioned salability, the traders were doing more than selling slaves:
they were making them.” (1,822) Walter Johnson. Soul by Soul.
8. Lies were told to convert humans into
currency. Image credit: https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/sean-bobbitt-
bsc-12-years-a-slave/
10. “The shades of
legality in which the
traders dealt
sometimes crossed
into outright
kidnapping.”
Ellis, Julie. “*Julie Ellis' Great Novel Eulalie: A Spirited Woman's Beauty
And Ambition Take Her From The Depths Of Slavery To The High
Society Of Two Continents.” Amazon, 1 Jan. 1970,
www.amazon.com/Julie-Ellis-Great-Novel-Eulalie/dp/B0016LDRXE.
Image Citation:
-Walter Johnson, Soul by
Soul
(page: 128)
Name: Eulalie
Pronunciation:Ewe-la-lee
11. The Faults in the System
“Though they lost years of their life to
the slave traders, these women and
their families had nearby friends and
relatives who could help them
reconstruct their histories and
successfully sue to have their freedom
restored on the grounds that
whatever claim there was to their
ownership had long since lapsed
through disuse.34”
-Walker Johnson, Soul by Soul
(page:128)
Relation
to the
thesis:
12. 03
The Story of
Albert
Young
Albert Young was a freeman
that was released by his
former Alabama owners will.
He was brought to New
Orleans where he was soon
sold to slave owners again.
Presented by: Danielle
Avalos
13. 4 Albert heard about
Merry and Northup,
that they were
freed from slavery
through the court.
So Albert filed a
lawsuit as well and
it reached the court
as well.
Sadly, for Albert, he
did not win his
lawsuit. Due to the
fact that his
freedom was not
legal under
Alabama law.
1 2
5
Albert Young was
freed by his
Alabama owner’s
will.
He was carried to
New Orleans by the
will’s executioner.
He was sold to New
Orleans dealers
McRae, Coffman &
Co.
3
14. “Or, at least, they seem the
most extreme, because
lying about a slave’s origins
seems more abject then
ignoring them, selling a
person under a uncertain
title seems more
mendacious than selling
with a clear title, and
kidnapping a free person
seems more shocking than
selling a slave.”
-Walter Johnson
Soul By Soul. Page 129
Relation to the thesis:
The relation to the thesis is that Albert Young
was still treated like an object even after his
gained his freedom. After his master died, he was
supposed to be free. But no, instead of letting him
live his life as a freeman, the will’s executioner
still took him to New Orleans and sold him back
into the Slave Market. He just went back into the
cycle of the Slave Market. Of course, no one knew
his past while on the market. That in a way, he
was kidnapped. Albert was taken against his will.
Still treated like an object after filing the lawsuit
for him to gain his freedom, it was still taken
away from him. Due to the fact that it was not
legal under Alabama law.
15. 04
Preparing
Slaves for
the Market
In an effort to attract a
buyer’s eye at the markets,
slave traders carefully
groomed and tended to
their slaves to make them
more visually appealing.
Presented by: Gloria Ramos
16. Preparation Rituals“This daily dialect of
categorization and
differentiation was the
magic by which traders
turned people into
things and things into
money. Traders began
to package their slaves
for market before they
ever reached the pens”
(Johnson 119).
Upon nearing their destination, traders:
● Removed the slaves’ heavy chains and
shackles
● Allowed the slaves to wash, rest and heal
● Shaved men’s beards and combed their
hair
● Plucked gray hairs and blackened them
with dye
When traders arrived at the market, they:
● Increased the rations of bacon, milk and
butter -- a process called “feeding up”
● Made the slaves dance and exercise to
keep their muscles toned
● Greased the slaves’ faces with “sweet oil”
to make their skin appear healthy and
radiant.
17. Henry Bibb, “Slave Auction, U.S. South, c.a. 1840s”
Relation to the Thesis:
The entire purpose of grooming and
cleaning the slaves at the market was
strictly to make them more visually
appealing. Traders didn’t actually care
about the well-being of their slave, they
just knew that they had a higher chance
of selling the slave if they looked
polished. This goes to reinforce our
thesis: the slaves were treated like
products. They were sold in a market
(along with other goods), which
basically meant that they had the same
value as the other goods being sold.
They were treated like dolls, made to
look good to ensure a sale. Once they
were sold, the traders could wash their
hands of them and move on to the next.
19. A Slave Repackaged
for Sale
https://uncensoredopinion.co.za/june-19-
1865-the-end-of-slavery-in-the-united-states/
It was a common practice
to see slaves dressed in
new clean clothes for sale
to present a well behaved
and kept slave. This visual
change gave the buyers
the impressions the slavers
wanted to present to them.
20. The Road to Profit
■ Slavers in their trade would often take slaves that were not up
to the sale and present them as profitable merchandise with
quick fixes.
■ It also was a common practice of the slavers to tear down the
slaves mentally and physically in order to build back up the
slave that was needed for the market.
■ Thesis: Slavers would break down the human in order to build
them or repackage them into the slave that many slave
owners were looking to buy. This is what you would call today
as a Rebranding in the slave market.
21. CREDITS: This presentation template was
created by Slidesgo, including icons by
Flaticon, and infographics & images by Freepik
Thanks!
