By the 1830s poor farming practices had ruined the land on tobacco plantations in the Chesapeake Bay area. At the same time cotton grown in the deep South was in high demand and more workers were needed. A federal law passed in 1807 prohibited importing slaves from Africa so many northern slave holders sold their slaves “down the river”. Manacled and chained together, they walked from Alexandria, Virginia to Natchez, Mississippi, a distance of about 1,000 miles, where they were sold at the Forks of the Road slave market owned by Isaac Franklin and John Armfield. The market changed hands in the 1840s but was still in the business of slave trading in 1863 when the Union Army occupied the town and shut it down.
A triangle of grass and a row of evergreen trees mark the location of the Fork in the Roads slave market. Interpretive signs on the edge of the triangle and in a kiosk give details of the ordeals the slaves endured on the trip to Natchez, at the slave market, and on the southern plantations.
The site is accessible.
The parking pull off is large enough for RVs. Fork of the Roads 31.55584, -91.38415
Geez ....
ReplyDeleteYeah, we have some ugly chapters in our nation's history.
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