Horrors of the Internal Slave Trade
In the latter part of January 1852, the Ohio River Valley experienced a severe cold spell. As a result, the Ohio River froze solid which suspended river traffic between Louisville and Pittsburg. The steamer Hermann became trapped in the icy waters of the Ohio at Guyandotte, Virginia. On board where 80 to 90 slaves who had been bought up at Charleston, Virginia and were destined for the southern slave markets. The steamer belonged to the Kanawha Salt Company and was piloted by Captain Snelling C. Farley (1806-1888). It is very likely that these slaves had formerly worked in the Kanawha Salines, which relied heavily on enslaved labor. As a result, between 1810 to 1820, the number of slaves in Kanawha County tripled, from 352 to 1073. The slave population was 1,717 in 1830 and reached its highest census-recorded number at 3,140 slaves in 1850. Nearly half of them were locally owned while the rest were leased in Kentucky or Eastern Virginia. The Great South; A Record of Journeys in L...