As a result, many of the slaves who were sold here were victims of kidnapping in Africa or sent to the US from Latin America in violation of federal law. With no new slaves coming legally into the nation and coastal slave markets in Savannah closing, this site became a place where slave smugglers found sanctuary. This trading post saw an increase in the number of human beings sold following Congress's ban of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1808. Today, the refurbished market house in the middle of the town square still stands as it did more than two hundred years ago. Louisville was also the center of the antebellum cotton trade and slave trade in this section of Georgia. Louisville was the original state capital from 1796 to 1806, a time when lands were illegally given to speculators in what is now known as the Yazoo Land Fraud. The structure is the only remaining slave trading post in the state of Georgia. All manner of goods were exchanged here, including human beings sold as chattel slaves. ![]() contributed to this report.Located in the center of Louisville, Georgia, this open-air market has been the site of trade since the late 1700s and features a bell made in 1772 that was used to warn residents and traders of impending dangers such as fire and possible raids by indigenous tribes. “She said, ‘That’s where they used to sell colored people.' That stuck with me up until this day.”Īssociated Press writer Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, N.C. ![]() “She said no," Ivery, who is Black, recalled during a recent phone interview. He asked her whether he could play there while they were shopping downtown one day. The nomination called it “one of few extant structures of its type and purpose in the United States,” citing its age and excellent state of preservation, among other factors.īut for Ivery, 68, it has only been a symbol of hatred since his grandmother told him as a little boy how it was used. It was also used to sell land and household goods, according to the nomination.Īs of 1977, much of the timber used in its construction remained, though it had been reinforced with iron. Slaves were sold there from its inception. Department of Interior in 1977 nominating it for the National Register of Historic Places. The Market House was built between 17 and served as the center of commerce in Louisville when it was briefly Georgia's state capital, according to documents filed with the U.S. Most were removed by government officials, though protesters have toppled some.īut markers that many view as racist have not come down as swiftly in rural parts of the country. Some committee members said it should be relocated to a museum built in the community.Īt least 77 Confederate statues, monuments or markers have been removed from public land across the country since Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minnesota on May 25, making 2020 one of the busiest years yet for removals, according to an Associated Press tally. ![]() That should be an area where all people are comfortable.” “We're not trying to destroy it," Cynthia Wells, another member of the committee, told WJBF-TV, “We just want it out of the downtown area. The City Council is expected to take up that recommendation Tuesday and make a final decision. The committee voted to remove it from downtown. Our concern is that by taking down, relocating, removing the Market House we are going to lose that history.” ![]() “Everything we leave here today is history. “To us, everything that we see, everything we come across, is history,” he said at a meeting of the committee in July, according to the Augusta Chronicle. Yonchak was on a committee tasked with making a recommendation to city officials about what to do with it. Robert Yonchak said members of a local historical society hoped to do a better job of educating people about the structure, but were against removing it. Like some opponents of removing Confederate monuments, residents who want to keep the Market House where it currently stands cite its historical value and say it can serve to teach visitors about the horrors of slavery. It’s telling me that I am less than a dog or a cow or a horse that’s being sold.” “I see that Black people in this country are no more than three-fifths of a human. “When I ride by there, I see women with their children being torn apart and sold to other white men as their property,” said James Ivery, a former Louisville resident who is pushing for the structure's removal. The City Council is expected to make a decision about the future of the structure at its meeting Tuesday.
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