Beginning of the Great Slave Auction

Date: March 2, 1859 • Location: Savannah, United States

The Great Slave Auction, the largest single sale of slaves in U.S. history, with more than 400 people sold, began in Georgia.

The Great Slave Auction was an auction of enslaved Americans of African descent held at Ten Broeck Race Course, near Savannah, Georgia, United States, on March 2 and 3, 1859. Slaveholder and absentee plantation owner Pierce Mease Butler authorized the sale of approximately 436 men, women, children, and infants to be sold over the course of two days. The sale's proceeds went to satisfy Butler's significant debt, much from gambling. The auction was considered the largest single sale of slaves in U.S. history until the 2022 discovery of an even larger auction of over 600 slaves in Charleston, South Carolina.