Chapter 31: Sale

Slave auctions were not common in New Jersey, that was certain. I never heard of such, but I am told that they did occur in the port cities from time to time. The one I discovered was evidently a local institution of some sort with a list of regulars and certain protocols that everyone in the know recognized and adhered to. As an ignorant newcomer, I stood back and learned as men, women, and children of colors ranging from dusty black to chocolate cream were sold for prices ranging from ten pounds to fifty, all measured in hard money. A list of the current exchange rates was prominently posted and the value of Continentals was, as I recall, about seventy-to-one at the time.

A few would-be buyers actually mounted the stage and examined some of the merchandise closely, especially when likely young women were offered. I saw breasts squeezed and buttocks slapped, even quims fingered. Several men were made to cavort or trot in place before they were sold, and any man who already had scars on his back, did not bring much in that market.

After a pleading mother, her young son and two nubile daughters, both very light colored, were all sold separately, the sweating auctioneer paused, looked about, nodded and then hung a silver medallion in front of his lectern.

"All the ladies has lef', ain' they?" he asked, looking about. "An' every man here unnerstan's that we ain' gonna talk about this here part a'the sale or it'll be the las' one."

Heads nodded.

"Who you?" the man in charge said loudly, pointing at me with his mallet. "Ain' never seed you a'fore."

"Passing through," I said. "Do this kind of work down in Maryland, lower part of Frederick County. You know the port of Georgetown?"

"No, boy," the auction manager said, "but you kin stay an' learn; bid if y'like. This part's hard money only."

Many eyes passed over me, and I returned several knowing smiles.

"Bring on out the fust one," the man cried, and two burly fellows produced a slim girl, holding her by wrist and upper arm, they all but carried her to the front of the stage. She was wearing a two-foot wide piece of coarse cloth with a slit cut in the middle for her tousled head to poke through and her ankles were hobbled with heavy rope. She had light brown hair, dark eyes, a bruise on one cheek bone, and she was as white as I am. If there was any African in her background, it certainly did not show.

The cloth she wore flapped freely, wide open on both sides, and the auctioneer made her turn about a couple of time so that we all could get a good look at her fine body. There was not much fat on her. She was sleek and shapely, her pointed breasts high and proud, her hips wide and rounded, her buttocks hard and her belly soft.

"This here's one they call Lou. Her Pap died in debt, and the family gave her out as an apprentice, but the candlemaker's wife won' let him keep her no more. Can't unnerstan' that, kin you?"

A laugh rocked through the smoky room.

"She served two years, that right girl?"

She nodded, looking at the floor, and he lifted her chin with his hammer.

"Candlemaker's still owed five quid, which he'd like to get. What am I bid for three years a'this young woman's services?"

"Three years," a man yelled, "how old is she?"

"She was 'dentured till she's eighteen, well January first of her 18th year, so she's fifteen or so. Right?" He poked the girl and she nodded again.

"Don' supposes she got her cherry," a man up front asked.

"Nope," the man at the table said, "but she's tight. I poked her las' night. Didn' I gal?"

She looked at him with hatred and nodded again.

After some spirited bidding, she sold for three pounds, six shillings. A grizzled man led her away.

"What his business?" I asked my neighbor.

"Bawdy house down near the city pier. She'll be earning her keep." He made a crude gesture, shoving his fist up through his gasping hand.

The next woman was older and plainer, dressed in the same piece of open cloth and looking sad and worn. She only had a year left on her indenture and sold for a crown.

"Now here's the one you bastards has been a'waitin' for," the auctioneer cried. "I ain' never had such a good piece a'ass to peddle, no sir."

Awkwardly because of her bonds, the golden blonde mounted the stage, her hands tied behind her. She kept her chin up and looked over the heads of the men who gazed at her with unbridled lust. She was lithe and lovely, a slim young woman with long legs, a lovely ass and ripe breasts that poked against the shabby cloth that covered her.

"You'all wan' to see this beauty?" the man asked with a grin. He stuck his hand in the neck hole of his garment and yanked. The cloth tore away, and he threw it at her feet. She trembled briefly, but then sniffed and raised her eyes again. They were icy blue, her eyes.

"This little bitch with her yeller hair, see them curls," he said, poking at her groin, "she ain' nothing but trouble to her family and they want shet of her. She sixteen years, and they've signed a contract till she's twenty-one, yesssir, five years is what I'm selling. Think of this in your home for five years. Would your sons like this as a maidservant, won't she be a fine bedwarmer for your business partners?"

"By damn," said the man beside me, scratching at his groin. The girl's small, pink nipples seemed to be hardening in the cool air, and I watched her belly rise and fall as she tried to control her breathing.

"She a virgin, a maiden?" asked a white wigged man.

"Don' know," the auctioneer said. "I'd doubt it, lookin' at her. You still got yer maidenhead, girl?" he asked, poking her in the middle with the handle of his gavel.

She spat at him, striking him in the chest, and he smacked her across the mouth backhanded, bringing a trickle of blood.

"She ain' very well behaved, I do know that?" he said. "What am I bid?"

I studied her ripe body, feeling my member swell and rise, unbidden but understandably. She was as well formed as any youngster her age I had ever seen unclothed, I was sure of that.

The bidding quickly went past ten pounds, slowed at twenty and then edged toward twenty-five. Three mature men were still in the bidding, and I watched them watch each other.