Abolitionist Samuel May Jr, the compiler, sent this copy to fellow abolitionist Lysander Spooner with a note that “give me additions to this catalogue, or corrections of it, I shall be much obliged.”
The Southern Planter quoted a Warrenton (Va.) 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.
Thomas Clarkson was a dedicated abolitionist whose publications on the slave trade helped to raise awareness of the horrors of slavery and the Middle Passage. In his description of this image, Clarkson explained that he purchased these items in a…