Footsteps to Freedom 2001: Day Two > Marshall Key House and Slave Auction

Update posted on Wed, Aug 8, 2001, at 12:36:35 PM Pacific Daylight Time.

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Marshall Key House and Slave Auction site,
Washington/Maysville, Kentucky

It was in 1833 while visiting a fellow student from Lane Seminary in Cincinnati at this house, that Harriet Beecher (not yet married to Mr. Stowe) was taken to see a slave auction. This auction left an indelible stamp on Harriet's mind that became part of the inspiration for her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. She describes this slave auction in her book. Our group walked through the house, viewed the building in the back of the house that was probably a slave pen, walked a hundred yards down the street to see the actual location of the slave market and the field in which Harriet stood, horrified by what she was viewing.

Men went for $900. Children were $500. Women, $1500. Jerry Gore brought us to the site of the first Mason County Courthouse, the location of a slave auction block.

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Jerry Gore explains the horror and humiliation of the auction site where Black slaves were paraded and sold.

"I related to Harriet Beecher Stowe and the horror she must have felt as she witnessed the slave auction. To think her friend's father brought her there for entertainment! I can imagine myself in her shoes, with all the thoughts that must have gone through her mind. You think you're paying your friend's family a visit, and you end up having your whole life changed."

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