Broadside, "Credit Sale of Valuable Slaves! by Julian Neville, Auctioneer," New Orleans, Louisiana, circa 1850

The wealth and power of Southern plantation owners depended upon a large labor force of enslaved people -- especially when cotton became "king" in the Deep South during the 1800s. They justified their actions by considering enslaved people to be mere pieces of property. New Orleans became a major slave auction center after about 1820.