A Charleston woman who struggled with her family’s legacy in the slave trade decided she needed a dramatic, public statement to share the whole truth.
“Ned. Amelia. Hagar. Flora. Anthony. Nancy.
Margaret Seidler read the names, loud enough that people standing around could hear over the traffic passing by on Broad Street.
She stood in front of a large white building with big columns that used to be two smaller buildings without columns — something that anyone walking by can see now, thanks to a photo printed on a new bronze marker.
If someone stops and reads the text, that person will learn, maybe for the first time, that the street they are walking that is now lined with law offices, galleries and bars and restaurants, a street featured in glossy magazine spreads touting Charleston’s beauty, was, for decades, a booming location of the domestic slave trade.
Enslaved people were sold at public street auctions and inside the buildings at private sales.
And, at that specific site, Seidler’s fourth great-grandfather, William Payne, had brokered the sale of enslaved people.
The number known of just how many people keeps growing. Seidler found seven more this week. The likely total is well over 10,000, she said.
Massy. Daniel. Lowry. Phelde. Simon. Judy. ” READ THE ENTIRE POST & COURIER ARTICLE BY CLICKING HERE (non-subcribers will hit a paywall)
See a YouTube video of a talk Seidler made on Monday, October 12, 2020 to the Charleston Tour Guide Association: CLICK HERE