Crawford, Frazer & Co.

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Crawford, Frazer & Co.
IndustrySlave traders
FoundedJanuary 1863;161 years ago (1863-01) in Atlanta
FoundersRobert Crawford, Addison D. Frazer, Thomas Lafayette Frazer
DefunctApril 1864 (1864-04)
FatePartnership dissolved

Crawford, Frazer & Co. was a slave-trading business located in Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1860s. The principals of Crawford, Frazer & Co. were Robert Crawford, Addison D. Frazer, and Thomas Lafayette Frazer. [1] [2] In company with a man named Robert Clarke, Crawford, Frazer & Co. may have been among "the largest of the city's slave brokers." [1] The business opened in January 1863 and was dissolved in April 1864. [2] All parties continued separately as negro traders, at another location in Atlanta (Crawford), and in Montgomery, Alabama (Frazers), [3] until forced to cease operations due to the defeat of the Confederacy, concluding the American Civil War. [2] Crawford, Frazer & Co. is remembered today because the company's negro mart appears in a notable photo of pre-burning Civil War Atlanta. [4]

Contents

History

Wider angle of Whitehall Street (looking eastward) in Atlanta showing locomotive and cars on the Macon & Western rail line (sketched by D. R. Brown, Harper's Weekly, October 8, 1864) Whitehall Street (looking eastward) Atlanta Georgia sketched by D R Brown 1864-10-08.jpg
Wider angle of Whitehall Street (looking eastward) in Atlanta showing locomotive and cars on the Macon & Western rail line (sketched by D. R. Brown, Harper's Weekly, October 8, 1864)
A note on the back of this stereographic view held by the Missouri Historical Society reads "No 6 View in Atlanta: Novr/64 - On Whitehall St. Ex negro-mart, used as U. S. Prov. Marshal's office" Missouri Historical Society - stereoview - George Barnard - Slave Market on Whitehall St., Atlanta, Georgia.jpg
A note on the back of this stereographic view held by the Missouri Historical Society reads "No 6 View in Atlanta: Novr/64 - On Whitehall St. Ex negro-mart, used as U. S. Prov. Marshal's office"

On May 26, 1863, they advertised their business as commission merchants, auctioneers, and dealers in negroes in the Southern Confederacy newspaper, adding, "Our Negro Yard and Lock Up, at No. 8, [is] both safe and comfortable. Dealers and other parties will find us prepared to feed and lodge well, and from experiences in the business since our boyhood, to handle the negro properly." [5] The Crawford, Frazer & Co. auction room and, to the rear, slave pen, was located at 8 Whitehall Street, between Alabama and Hunter Streets, [6] immediately adjacent to the Macon & Western Railroad line. [1] The site is now the Five Points station of the MARTA transit system. [7] The Crawford, Frazer & Co. stand was across from the offices of the Atlanta Intelligencer newspaper, which talked up their slave business, claiming in 1863 that Atlanta had overtaken Macon, Georgia, as a regional market for slaves and that it was fast approaching the scale of Richmond, Virginia. [1]

The Atlanta History Center holds a Crawford, Frazer & Co. receipt dated May 2, 1863, for the sale of "Harry about 34 & Hannah 30" to John P. Hulst. [8] The sale price was $3,600 for the pair, likely paid in Confederate currency. [1] Another such receipt is for Ben, a 21-year-old who sold for $3,200. [9] In September 1863, Crawford, Frazer & Co. donated $1,000 to a fund for the care of the Confederate wounded from the Battle of Chickamauga. [10]

Sherman may not have employed U.S. Colored Troops in combat (he has been described as "one of the least sensitive toward blacks of all the supreme Federal commanders"), but the line of Sherman's march through Georgia was nonetheless accompanied by thousands of contrabands escaping slavery once and for all (unidentified war artist "F", Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, March 18, 1865) Contrabands accompanying the line of Sherman's march through Georgia (Frank Leslie's Illustrated News).jpg
Sherman may not have employed U.S. Colored Troops in combat (he has been described as "one of the least sensitive toward blacks of all the supreme Federal commanders"), but the line of Sherman's march through Georgia was nonetheless accompanied by thousands of contrabands escaping slavery once and for all (unidentified war artist "F", Frank Leslie's Illustrated News , March 18, 1865)

George N. Barnard photographed several business buildings along Whitehall, including the Crawford, Frazer & Co. storefront, in autumn 1864, after General William T. Sherman had captured the city, but before it burned. [12] [1]

Stephen Berry in Lens of War argues that the famous photograph of a corporal in the U.S. Colored Troops reading in front of the building was most likely posed, as there were no USCT units with Sherman (he didn't much like "Negroes" and wrote a letter to Henry Halleck to that effect the week the photo was taken), and Berry argues that the figure visible just inside the door was likely told to move out of frame for the sake of the image. [4] Berry notes that there are a great deal more questions than answers about the photo, including the identity of the reading man and what was Barnard's intent (if he indeed posed the image), but also argues that even without these factual certainties, the image draws its power from juxtaposition of the reading man and the visibly derelict business, now deprived of its original purpose as a depot for buying and selling people: "Those days are over." [4]

33°45′14″N84°23′31″W / 33.754°N 84.392°W / 33.754; -84.392

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Venet, Wendy Hamand (2014). A Changing Wind: Commerce and Conflict in Civil War Atlanta. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. xii–xiii (map), 97 (size of firm), 98 (Harry & Hannah), 144 (principals), also photo section, aerial view of Whitehall. ISBN   978-0-300-19216-2. JSTOR   j.ctt5vksj6. OCLC   879430095.
  2. 1 2 3 Davis, Robert S. (October 21, 2022). "Crawford, Frazer & Company of Atlanta and of Auburn". DALLAS GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. Archived from the original on 2023-08-21. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  3. ↑ Slavery in America: The Montgomery Slave Trade (PDF) (Report). Montgomery, Ala.: Equal Justice Initiative. 2013. p. 12. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-08-11. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  4. 1 2 3 Gallman, J. Matthew; Gallagher, Gary W. (2015). "Stephen Berry: The Book or the Gun?". Lens of War: Exploring Iconic Photographs of the Civil War. University of Georgia Press. ISBN   978-0-8203-4811-7. Archived from the original on 2023-08-21. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  5. ↑ "Southern confederacy. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1861-1865, May 26, 1863, Image 2 « Georgia Historic Newspapers". gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  6. ↑ Best of Images of America (2000). Atlanta: Unforgettable Images of an All-American City. Arcadia Publishing. p. 84. ISBN   978-0-7385-0751-4 . Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  7. ↑ Davis, Stephen (December 15, 2016). All the Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign from Peachtree Creek to the City's Surrender, July 18–September 2, 1864. Grub Street Publishers. p. 85. ISBN   978-1-61121-320-1 . Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  8. ↑ "Crawford, Frazer & Co. receipt, 1863 May 2 - Digital Library of Georgia". dlg.usg.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  9. ↑ West Publishing Company's Docket. West Publishing Company. 1909. p. 545. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  10. ↑ Reed, Wallace Putnam (1889). History of Atlanta, Georgia: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. D. Mason & Company. p. 154. ISBN   978-0-7222-0872-4.
  11. ↑ Hurst, Jack (1993). Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 180. ISBN   978-0-307-78914-3. LCCN   92054383. OCLC   26314678.
  12. ↑ Barnard, George N. (1864). "["Auction & Negro Sales," Whitehall Street]". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
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