List of Tennessee slave traders

Antebellum city directories from slave states can be valuable primary sources on the trade; slave dealers listed in the 1855 directory of Memphis, Tennessee, included Bolton & Dickens, Forrest & Maples operating at 87 Adams, Neville & Cunningham, and Byrd Hill

This is a list of slave traders active in Tennessee from settlement until 1865.

• John Anderson, Nashville[1]
• Pat Anderson, Tennessee and Louisiana[2]
• Atkinson & Richardson, Tennessee, Kentucky, and St. Louis, Mo.[3]
• Daniel Berry, Tennessee and Texas[4]
• Isaac L. Bolton, Memphis[5]
• Wade H. Bolton, Memphis
• Washington H. Bolton, Memphis[5]
• William L. Boyd Jr., Nashville[6]
• Boyd, Whitworth, and Taylor, Nashville[7]
• W. Bradford, Memphis[8]
• Will Brooks, Virginia and Tennessee[9]
• John Brown, Tennessee[10]
• Edward Bush, Tennessee[11]
• M. C. Cayce & Co., Memphis[5]
• John W. Chrisp, Memphis[12][13]
• James Cook, Paris, Tennessee, and Mississippi[14]
• Clark Cummings, Clarksville, Tenn.[15]
• A. J. Cunningham, Memphis[16]
• Z. H. Curlin, Memphis[17]
• Dabbs & Porter, Nashville[18][19]
• Anderson Delap, Memphis[16][20]
• Nelson Delap, Memphis[20][21]
• Norman Delap, Memphis[20][21]
• Delap, Witherspoon & Fly, Memphis[20][8]
• John A. Denie, Memphis[16]
• Thomas Dickins, Memphis and St. Louis
• W. E. Eliot, Memphis[5]
• Joseph Erwin, John Erwin, Abraham Wright, and Billings,[22][23] and Joseph Thompson, possibly Samuel Spraggins, Tennessee and Louisiana[24]
• Andrew Ewing, Nashville[19]
• Aaron H. Forrest, Memphis, and Vicksburg, Miss.[25]
• Jeffrey E. Forrest, Memphis, and Vicksburg, Miss.[25]
• Jesse A. Forrest, Memphis[25]
• John N. Forrest, Memphis[25]
• Nathan Bedford Forrest[25][26]
• William H. Forrest, Memphis, and Vicksburg, Miss.[25]
• S. and A. Fowlkes, Memphis[5]
• Glover & Boyd, Nashville[18]
• Goodbar, Tennessee and Montgomery, Ala.[27]
• Jonathan Harding, Sumner Co., Tennessee, and Natchez[28]
• E. S. Hawkins, Nashville[29][30]
• Henry H. Haynes, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tenn.[31][29][32][33]
• Peter Hickman, near Jonesboro, Tenn.[34]
• Byrd Hill, Memphis and Mississippi[16]
• Hill & Powell, Memphis[35]
• Hill, Weaver & Co., Memphis[36]
• George W. Hitchings, Nashville and Sumner County[32][29][37]
• Andrew Jackson[38][39] and John Hutchings, Nashville and Natchez
• Damascus G. James, Memphis[21]
• David D. James, Nashville, Richmond, Va. and Natchez, Miss.
• John D. James, Nashville, Richmond, Va. and Natchez, Miss.
• Thomas G. James, Nashville, Richmond, Va. and Natchez, Miss.
• William G. James, Memphis[21]
• James & Harrison, Nashville[18]
• William Jenkins, Nashville[40]
• Richard Johnson & Jesse Meek, Tennessee and Forks of the Road[41]
• Benjamin Little,[42][16] [43][44] Montgomery Little,[45][46] Chauncey Little & William Little, Memphis and Shelbyville, Tenn.[16][37]
• R. W. Lucas, Nashville[32]
• Robert J. Lyles, Nashville[32]
• Maddock, Tennessee[47]
• Josiah Maples, Memphis
• Joseph Meek, Tennessee, Virginia and Mississippi[48][49]
• A. A. McLean, Nashville[50][51]
• James McMillin, Tennessee and Kentucky[52]
• N. A. McNairy, Nashville and Natchez[53]
• James S. Moffett, Troy, Tenn.[35]
• J. W. Morton, Nashville[54]
• Isaac Neville, Memphis[16]
• George N. Noel, Memphis[16]
• G. L. Pierce, Nashville[55]
• Rees W. Porter, Nashville[18][19][54]
• William Ramsey, Nashville and Virginia[18]
• John Rath, Smith Co., Tenn.[56]
• Dr. Ray, Tennessee (?) and Mississippi[57]
• Redman, Mississippi and Tennessee[58]
• John Reed, Tennessee and Mississippi[59]
• David Saffarans & Son (possibly, per Chase Mooney)[17]
• Thomas G. Saunders, Nashville[60]
• John Staples, Memphis[61]
• Thompson, near Nashville, Tennessee[11]
• Tom Tucker, Knoxville, Tenn.[62]
• Vanhook, Tennessee[63]
• A. Wallace, Memphis[16][8][64]
• John D. Ware, Memphis and Brownsville[12][65]
• Warwick, Nashville[66]
• Webb, Merrill & Co., Nashville[32][29]
• Frank Whiterspoon, Missouri and Tennessee[67]
• Alexander Williams, Nashville[68]
• Henry Williams, Nashville[19]
• Williams & Glover, Nashville[69]
• E. L. Willie, Memphis[8]
• Jerry Wilson, Tennessee[70]
• William Witherspoon, Memphis[16]

See also

• List of slave traders of the United States
• History of slavery in Tennessee
• List of Alabama slave traders
• List of District of Columbia slave traders
• List of Georgia and Florida slave traders
• List of Kentucky slave traders
• List of Maryland and Delaware slave traders
• List of Missouri slave traders
• Family separation in American slavery
• List of largest slave sales in the United States
• Movement to reopen the transatlantic slave trade
• Kidnapping into slavery in the United States
• Bibliography of the slave trade in the United States
• Slave markets and slave jails in the United States

References

1. "CASH". The Impartial Review and Cumberland Repository. 1806-02-15. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-01-29.
2. "Mrs. Martha Smith seeking information about her sisters Phillis and Letitia · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
3. Hedrick (1927), p. 92.
4. "Eadie Tolson (formerly Eadie Dickens) seeking her sons John Chesterfield and William Henry · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
5. Mooney (1971), p. 46.
6. "Nashville, 1860". U.S. City Directories, 1822–1995. Ancestry.com. p. 130. Retrieved 2023-07-22. Boyd, Wm. L. Jr., general agent and dealer in slaves, 50, north Cherry st., residence, 6, north Cherry st.
7. Jones-Rogers (2019), pp. 156–157.
8. Bancroft (2023), p. 251.
9. "Mrs. Louisa Thomas searching for her father Henry Ford Brown and her sisters Dilsy and Fanny Robinson · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
10. "Ralph Amos searching for his sister Maria, mother Rose, and father Amos · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
11. "Eliza Montgomery searching for her brother Dick Bush · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
12. "Record Trade card for the "Great Negro Mart" in Memphis, Tennessee". Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
13. "(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) Trade card for John W Chrisp Co Dea". catalogue.swanngalleries.com. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
14. "Runaways in Jail". Vicksburg Whig. 1860-11-14. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
15. "Rufus Rollings searching for his mother Letty and his siblings · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
16. Mooney (1971), p. 50.
17. Mooney (1971), p. 47.
18. Carey, Bill (July 20, 2018). "Nashville needs to come to terms with its slave past". Opinion. The Tennessean. Retrieved 2025-01-26.
19. Mooney (1971), p. 44.
20. Keating, John M. (1888). History of the City of Memphis Tennessee: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. D. Mason & Company. p. 374.
21. Mooney (1971), p. 51.
22. "Two Red Morocco Pocket-Books". The Mississippi Messenger. 1807-04-07. p. 9. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
23. "Erwin, Spraggins & Wright". The Weekly Democrat. 1808-09-23. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
24. White, Alice Pemble (April 1944). "The Plantation Experience of Joseph and Lavinia Erwin, 1807–1836". Louisiana Historical Quarterly. XXVII (2). Cabildo, New Orleans: Louisiana Historical Society: 343–477. ISSN 0095-5949 – via Internet Archive.
25. Huebner, Timothy S. (March 2023). "Taking Profits, Making Myths: The Slave Trading Career of Nathan Bedford Forrest". Civil War History. 69 (1): 42–75. doi:10.1353/cwh.2023.0009. ISSN 1533-6271. S2CID 256599213.
26. Mooney (1971), p. 49.
27. "Sydney Elliott and Eliza Cannon searching for their sons Sidney and Harrison · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
28. "Forty Dollars Reward". Mississippi Gazette. 1830-06-16. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
29. Mooney (1971), p. 45.
30. E S Hawkins, 1860, 18 Cedar St, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, Slave-Dealer - Nashville, Tennessee, City Directory, 1860 - Page 188 G H Hitchings 72 Broad St Nashville, Tennessee, USA - Negro-Dealer - page 305 - Nashville, Tennessee, City Directory, 1860
31. Clark (1934), p. 337.
32. Goodstein (1989), p. 138.
33. Colby (2024), pp. 62–63.
34. "Interesting Recollections of the Old Valley Wagon Road". Staunton Vindicator. 1883-05-11. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
35. "Runaways - Eaton, Napoleon, Asbury Crenshaw, Alexander N. Edmonds, James S. Moffett, Hill & Powell". The Memphis Daily Eagle. 1849-11-20. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
36. Bancroft (2023), p. 252.
37. Louisiana Supreme Court; Thorpe, Thomas H.; Gill, Charles G. (1870). Louisiana Reports: Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Louisiana. West Publishing Company. pp. 474–475.
38. Snow, Whitney Adrienne (2008). "Slave Owner, Slave Trader, Gentleman: Slavery and the Rise of Andrew Jackson". Journal of East Tennessee History. 80. Knoxville, Tennessee: East Tennessee Historical Society: 47–59. ISSN 1058-2126. OCLC 23044540.
39. Cheathem, Mark R. (April 2011). "Andrew Jackson, Slavery, and Historians". History Compass. 9 (4): 326–338. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2011.00763.x.
40. "The State of Mississippi". The Natchez Weekly Courier. 1847-06-16. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
41. "Fifty Dollars Reward". The Rodney Telegraph. 1836-04-15. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
42. Bancroft (2023), p. 250.
43. Stowe (1853), p. 336.
44. "Slaves for Sale". The Times-Picayune. 1841-04-08. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
45. Alexander, Charles (1914). Battles and Victories of Allen Allensworth ... Lieutenant-Colonel, Retired, U.S. Army. Sherman, French. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-598-48524-3.
46. "1861 New Orleans City Directory - P (complete) - Orleans Parish". usgwarchives.net. July 2004.
47. "A List of Runaways". Mississippi Free Trader. 1835-12-11. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
48. Mooney (1971), p. 40.
49. Slave dealer Joseph Meek describes high demand and rigors of market. (1835-09-27). Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library; 13; 48. https://jstor.org/stable/community.21813405
50. Stowe (1853), p. 354.
51. "For Sale by A. A. McLean". Nashville Union and American. 1852-07-13. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
52. Bancroft (2023), p. 253.
53. "FOR SALE". The Mississippi Messenger. 1808-01-14. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
54. "Negroes at Auction". Republican Banner. 1857-07-03. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-01-26.
55. "Entry for Granville L. Pierce, 1860". United States Census, 1860. FamilySearch.
56. "Gideon Austin searching for his relatives, including his sister Elsie Violet and brothers George and Anderson · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
57. "Gidden Alston (formerly Gidden Bartley) searching for his mother Lucy Bartley, father Richard Alexander, two sisters and six brothers · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
58. "Amy Frances Ushley Jordan (or Amy Butler) seeking her parents Henry and Nancy Draper · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
59. "Lewis of Tennessee". Columbus Democrat. 1837-12-16. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
60. "Entry for Lusky boarding house, 1860". United States Census, 1860. FamilySearch.
61. "W H Rainey and Co Memphis City Directory, 1855–56, Page 130 - Hill, William C, Slave dealer, 56 Adams - Page 171 Staples, Jno., negro trader, 136 Adams". U.S. City Directories, 1822–1995 – via Ancestry.com.
62. "Committed to the Jail". The Democrat. 1842-11-26. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
63. "Ellen Douglass searching for her brother George Irvin · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
64. "South Carolina Money". Memphis Evening Ledger. 1857-10-29. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
65. "A New Firm". Memphis Daily Appeal. 1859-08-06. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
66. "Lucinda Lowery searching for her daughter Caroline Dodson · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
67. "Mary S. Montague (formerly Mary Susan Davis) searching for her aunt Nancy Davis · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
68. Benjamin J. Lea, ed. (1883). "Williams v. Hitchings, 78 Tenn. 326 (Tenn. 1882)". Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Highest Courts of Law and Equity of the State of Tennessee. Nashville: Albert B. Tavel. pp. 326–327.
69. "Cash for Negroes". Nashville Union and American. 1852-10-06. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-08-14.
70. "A. R. Rimawr seeking information about grandparents Randel and Rilda Rankins and extended family · Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery". informationwanted.org. Retrieved 2024-12-02.

Sources

• Bancroft, Frederic (2023) [1931]. Slave Trading in the Old South. Southern Classics Series. Introduction by Michael Tadman. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-64336-427-8.
• Clark, T. D. (December 1934). "The Slave Trade between Kentucky and the Cotton Kingdom". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 21 (3). Urbana, Illinois: Mississippi Valley Historical Association: 331–342. doi:10.2307/1897378. ISSN 0161-391X. JSTOR 1897378. OCLC 35781793.
• Colby, Robert K. D. (2024). An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780197578261.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-757828-5. LCCN 2023053721. OCLC 1412042395.
• Goodstein, Anita Shafer (1989). Nashville, 1780–1860: From Frontier to City. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. ISBN 978-0-8130-0940-7. LCCN 89033186. OCLC 19669897.
• Hedrick, Charles Embury (1927). Social and Economic Aspects of Slavery in the Transmontane Prior to 1850. George Peabody College for Teachers. Contributions to education.no. 46. Nashville, Tennessee: George Peabody College for Teachers.
• Jones-Rogers, Stephanie E. (2019). They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-21866-4.
• Mooney, Chase C. (1971) [1957]. "Chapter Two: Hire, Sale, Theft and Flight of Slaves". Slavery in Tennessee. Westport, Conn.: Negro Universities Press. pp. 29–63.

• Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1853). A key to Uncle Tom's cabin: presenting the original facts and documents upon which the story is founded. Boston: J. P. Jewett & Co. LCCN 02004230. OCLC 317690900. OL 21879838M.