Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, General Research and Reference Division

Essie Collins Matthews, Aunt Phebe, Uncle Tom and Others (Columbus, OH: Champlin Press, 1915)

Isom Cole was one of about 1.2 million men, women, and children displaced by the domestic slave trade. Born in Virginia in 1825, he was sold at twelve to a slave dealer. His sister Bettie was sold to another trader and they never heard of each other again. Isom walked to Alabama in a coffle of ninety-nine slaves and twenty-five horses, traveling twenty-file miles a day. He was sold for $600. Five years later, his value was estimated at $2,000 ($40,000 in today's dollars).