Dickinson & Hill

Richard H. Dickinson was one of the most active slave auctioneers in Richmond in the 1840s through the Civil War. In 1856 his firm reportedly sold $2 million worth of slaves, the commissions from which would have amounted to $50,000. In the 1830s he was a general auctioneer in Richmond and gradually specialized in the enslaved. Dickinson partnered with several other slave traders including brothers Nathaniel and Charles Hill. Dickinson, Hill & Company operated on the north corner of Franklin and Wall Street, where by the mid-1850s they auctioned slaves exclusively. The firm competed with Hector Davis and continued to sell enslaved people as late as 1865.

The Southern Planter quoted a Warrenton Whig report that Dickinson, Hill, & Co. “reached the enormous sum of two millions [dollars]” in sales. The Whig estimated that the gross sales of Richmond’s slave traders exceeded four million dollars.