Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division

Jesse Torrey, American Slave Trade (London: Reprinted by C. Clement and published by J. M. Cobbett, 1822)

The domestic slave trade, as the abolitionists rightly argued, led to tragedies. Some people died en route to the Deep South; others, like this young woman, committed suicide rather than be "sold down the river." The destruction of families was often so severe that after Emancipation, many people were unable to locate any of their kin who had been dispersed throughout the Deep South.