History UnderfootAtlanta
  • Slavery
  • Early
  • antebellum era to 1865; Crawford, Frazer & Co. 1863-64
  • City of Atlanta
  • Location approximate

Slave trading on Whitehall Street

Atlanta's slave market was centered on Whitehall Street. The best-documented dealer, Crawford, Frazer & Co., kept an auction room and slave pen at 8 Whitehall Street.

See it on the map All Early records

The record

Wikipedia's article on the Whitehall Street Retail Historic District says the area was the site of the city's slave market in the antebellum era, and the Atlanta History Center counts about 20 slave markets in Atlanta before the end of the war, with a $2 city tax on each sale. The History Center's archives place Crawford, Frazer & Co. at 8 Whitehall Street in 1863; secondary sources put the building either between Alabama and Hunter streets (Wikipedia, citing an Images of America book) or on the west side of Whitehall between Alabama Street and the railroad (a Lane Brothers photo record at Georgia State University). The firm itself operated from January 1863 to April 1864 (Robert S. Davis). George N. Barnard photographed its 'Auction & Negro Sales' storefront in 1864 (Library of Congress). The named antebellum dealers and exact pre-1861 addresses were not established in this research.

Today: Near Five Points and the Underground Atlanta plaza; the exact site is uncertain and there is no marker.