- Old Slave Mart
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Old Slave Mart
Old Slave Mart facadeLocation: 6 Chalmers Street Nearest city: Charleston, South Carolina Coordinates: 32°46′38″N 79°55′48″W / 32.77722°N 79.93°WCoordinates: 32°46′38″N 79°55′48″W / 32.77722°N 79.93°W Built: 1859[2] Architectural style: Gothic Revival, Romanesque Governing body: Private NRHP Reference#: 75001694[1] Added to NRHP: May 2, 1975 The Old Slave Mart is a building located at 6 Chalmers Street in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, that once housed an antebellum slave auction gallery. Constructed in 1859, the building is believed to be the last extant slave auction gallery in South Carolina. In 1975, the Old Slave Mart was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its role in Charleston's African-American history. Today, the building houses the Old Slave Mart Museum.[2][3]
The Old Slave Mart was originally part of a large slave market known as Ryan's Mart, which covered a large enclosed lot between Chalmers and Queen streets. The market was established in 1856 by Charleston sheriff Thomas Ryan after a citywide ban on public slave auctions made private markets necessary. Slave auctions were held at the site until the Union Army occupied Charleston and closed Ryan's Mart in 1865. The Old Slave Mart Museum has operated off and on since 1938.[3]
Contents
Design
The Old Slave Mart is a 67-foot (20 m) by 19-foot (5.8 m) brick structure with a stuccoed facade. The facade (south side) faces the cobblestone-paved Chalmers Street. The building originally measured 44 feet (13 m) by 20 feet (6.1 m), but an extension of the building in 1922 gave it its current dimensions. The unique facade of the Old Slave Mart consists of 20-foot (6.1 m) octagonal pillars at each end, and a central elliptical arch that provides the entrance.[3]
The building's interior originally contained one large room with a 20-foot (6.1 m) ceiling. In 1878, a second floor was added, and the roof was overhauled. The arched entryway originally consisted of an iron gate, but was filled in and converted to simple doors in the late 1870s. Partitions were added in subsequent decades, dividing the first floor into three rooms.[3] An iron gate has since been restored to the archway.
History
The layout of Ryan's Mart, circa 1860
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, slaves brought into Charleston were sold at public auctions held on the north side of the Exchange and Provost building.[2] After Charleston prohibited public slave auctions in 1856, slave markets sprang up along Chalmers, State, and Queen streets. One such market was Ryan's Mart, established by Charleston sheriff and alderman Thomas Ryan and his business partner, James Marsh. Ryan's Mart originally consisted of a closed lot with three structures— a four-story barracoon, a kitchen, and a morgue.[3]
In 1859, an auction master named Z. B. Oakes purchased Ryan's Mart, and built what is now the Old Slave Mart building for use as an auction gallery. The building's auction table was 3 feet (0.91 m) high and 10 feet (3.0 m) long, and stood just inside the arched doorway.[2] Along with slaves, the market also sold real estate and stock.[3] Slave auctions at Ryan's Mart were advertised in broadsides throughout the 1850s, some appearing as far away as Galveston, Texas.
When Union forces occupied Charleston toward the end of the Civil War in February 1865, the slaves still imprisoned at Ryan's Mart were freed.[4] In 1878, the Old Slave Mart was converted into a tenement dwelling and a second floor was added.[2] A car dealership and showroom operated in the building in the 1920s, necessitating the expansion of the rear of the building.[3] In 1938, Miriam B. Wilson purchased the building and established the Old Slave Mart Museum, which initially displayed African and African-American art.[2] The City of Charleston and the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission restored the Old Slave Mart in the late 1990s.[5] The museum now interprets the history of the city's slave trade. The area behind the building, which once contained the barracoon and kitchen, is now a parking lot.
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html.
- ^ a b c d e f National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, Old Slave Mart. Retrieved: 27 May 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g Nenie Dixon and Elias Bull, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Old Slave Mart, 12 February 1975. Retrieved: 27 May 2010.
- ^ Information obtained from a display in the Old Slave Mart Museum, 2010.
- ^ Jonathan H. Poston, The Buildings of Charleston: A Guide to the City's Architecture (University of South Carolina Press 1997), pp. 64-65.
External links
Categories:- National Register of Historic Places in Charleston, South Carolina
- Museums in Charleston, South Carolina
- History museums in South Carolina
- African American museums in South Carolina
- Slave trade
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