Slave Auction Block

---

The auction block has been defined as a sort of stage. Roach describes it as "genealogies of performance" where "witnesses are inserted into a narrative charged with racial sentiment that reflects and resurrects historically racialized identities." The racial conflicts already present in Antebellum slavery were exepmlified by the audiences reaction to the slave auction. Jason Stupp's article "Slavery and the Theatre of History: Ritual Performance on the Auction Block" describes the auction block as a place both of entertainment and business. The auction block became a sort of theater in which those enslaved stood on the block (as the theater) and those buying slaves were the audience.The audience would often have a physical reaction to the slave auctions by seeing the "heightened awareness of racial identity and privilege (or lack thereof)" (Stupp 62). Stupp explains how the "black body... is a multiplictious subject, a vessel onto which is projected the anxieties and contradictions of those living in a historically white-supremacist nation. Therefore, because white supremacy was a deeply ingrained national phenomenon, even abolitionist sympathizers in the North could be subsumed under the racial scripts played out by auction scenes." Anthony Pinn refers to the auction experience as a "ritual of reference: it is repeated, systematic activity conducted in carefully selected locations that is intended to reinforce the enslaved's status as object." In fact, many of those who attended the slave auctions were not there to buy, rather they were there for entertainment. The clear distinction between the white audience and the black slaves gave way to a sort of empowerment in the lower-class community of white people; they were able to fantasize about owning a person. The auction block was a place for slaves to act. The slaves would practice moving to their places before the audience came. During the auction, slaves would often be prodded and poked in the eyes and mouth. If a buyer felt the need to examine the slave more thoroughly, the slave would be taken into a small house in which the slave would be stripped and examined. Women who looked as if they were white (had no black blood) were fetishized. Theses women were called "fancy girls." Inspections were on the block; these inspections were humiliating and a form of sexual abuse. The enslaved men were oiled so their muscles would shine. The slaves were forced to put on an appearance of being healthy and beautiful. By acting on the auction block, the slaves were "actors" and those viewing the auction were the "audience."

References

This article "Slave Auction Block" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Slave Auction Block. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---