The Slave Auction

In this small plaster, John Rogers depicts a slave auction in progress and the tragedy of a family about to be torn apart. The father stands defiantly, with arms crossed. His wife stands on the other side of the podium. Rogers noted that he portrayed the woman with Caucasian features to suggest that she was of mixed race and allude to the sexual abuse of female slaves by their masters. The woman holds a baby, while her other child, a toddler, hides fearfully behind her skirt. The auctioneer presides over a rostrum with a sign that describes the sale with chilling dispassion: "Great Sale/of/Horses, Cattle/Negroes & Other/Farm Stock/This Day at/Public Auction." Rogers made clear the evil being perpetrated by the auctioneer: his hair forms two curls that resemble the horns of a devil, and what appears to be a tail peeks out from the back of his coat.

Rogers offered The Slave Auction for sale in New York two weeks after the execution of abolitionist John Brown. He found little success and wrote home in dismay that "I find the times have quite headed me off, for the Slave Auction tells such a strong story that none of the stores will receive it to sell for fear of offending their Southern customers." Rogers had misjudged his audience, not counting on New York's strong commercial ties to the South, which divided the city's sympathies. Undaunted, he hired a black man to sell the group in the streets. It ultimately attracted the attention of the abolitionist Lewis Tappan, who brought Rogers sales in antislavery circles. The abolitionist George B. Cheever wrote a flattering notice in the Independent, and the plaster was acclaimed by other abolitionist publications like the National Anti-Slavery Standard and the New York Daily Tribune.