Norfolk’s “Big Business”: Slave Jails and Markets Selling to the Deep South

This is the grim reality behind the story in my historical fiction/magical realism book for ages 9-12. I don’t go into this much historical detail but focus on what they see around them and its effects on them as the enslaved twins escape on the UGRR. I can’t help but think of the immigrant families being locked away.

During the Antebellum Years, Norfolk existed to traffic enslaved people with its integrated network of jails, shipping agents, and traders. Traders shipped enslaved people from Norfolk to the Deep South, especially Louisiana. There were at least three private slave jails in Norfolk. Slave traders auctioned the enslaved people at Market Square, on the steps of the Courthouse, and at public auctions near Newton’s Wharf, Campbell’s Wharf, and Marsden’s Wharf. Slave jails, sometimes called “repositories,” were integral to the global slave network. They were a visible, normalized part of urban life in Norfolk during the 1830s. These private holding facilities were run by slave traders or slaveholders. Local police often cooperated and profited from helping the slave jails.

Slave jails were closer to human warehouses than legal prisons. Jailers held prisoners for a few days or weeks, either awaiting auction or to complete the manifest of an outgoing ship. Locked rooms or cells were unsanitary and crowded. High walls with barred windows and ample security prevented escape. Their cries from flogging and torture mix with the sounds of the docks and shipyards. Slave “discipline” was a standard advertised service. 

An infamous slave trader and jail owner was John Caphart, and his partner, Elias Guy. Caphart advertised his services as a “punisher” at the Guy and Caphart Jail in downtown Norfolk. He also sold his services as a slave hunter. By day, he worked as a police officer alongside his superior. The jails gave white owners and buyers control over the enslaved to maximize their sale value and to prevent and erode resistance.

Over 20,000 enslaved people went through this system of abuse.