Slave Memorabilia Comes Out Of Closet, But The Price Is High

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - It once was hidden in family vaults and back rooms of antique shops - too sensitive to display, too valuable to discard.

Now U.S. slave memorabilia is coming out of the closet, as dealers supply a demand for everything from bills of sale to shackles.

"Slavery has become Americana. It has taken on a new prestige," said Charles Blockson, who donated 20,000 items on African-American history to Temple University in Philadelphia and oversees the collection named for him there.

Last March, New York-based Swann Galleries held an auction called the "African-Americana Sale" of slavery documents and other items, among them a manuscript written in Arabic by a slave. It sold for $21,850.

"If you're able to look at it as an important historical record, it's very much like Holocaust material or any kind of situation that's horrendous," said Swann spokeswoman Caroline Birenbaum.

While black collectors like Joseph Young are not offended by the auctions, they are upset that citizens, rather than museums or universities, are purchasing items.

"I don't have any problem with the sales, but I'd prefer they be collected by institutions and put in the proper context," said Young, a Washington, D.C., elementary-school teacher who has a 500-piece collection of African-American memorabilia in his home.

Russell Adams, chairman of Howard University's African-American Studies Program, said an acquaintance whose ancestors owned slaves took him aside to show him manacles he kept hidden. Owner had mixed feelings

"Somehow he knew that if he threw them away he'd be doing something wrong," Adams said. "He thought, `I can't show these because folks will misread me, or identify me as somebody who put the cuffs on somebody.' "

Slavery memorabilia isn't found only in the South. The slave trade was big business in 18th-century Rhode Island. Local historians say one-fifth of all slaves brought to this country were transported on Rhode Island vessels.

Before the 1960s and the civil-rights movement, records such as bills of sale or newspaper ads for slave auctions could be found piled in thrift shops and bought for next to nothing.

As the civil-rights movement gained strength, many dealers hid the documents, afraid of being seen as profiting from racism. Yet they continued to sell the items clandestinely, mainly to whites, collectors say.

"When it was politically sensitive to go back to the old days in terms of showing things, people were circumspect," Adams said.

"But we're now on a roll in African-American studies. That legitimizes exposure of the documents and the prices go up, and when the prices go up, the nerve goes up about exposing these things. They almost want to publicize it for the highest possible bid."

A slave bill of sale, which 25 years ago brought about $75, now sells for as much as $800, said Frank Wood, an Alexandria, Va., document dealer.

Lay of supply and demand

As demand for memorabilia grew, and the items made their way to galleries and auction houses, prices skyrocketed.

Blockson, who started collecting in the 1940s, lamented the price increase.

"It's hard for the novice collector," he said. "African-Americans can't compete for so many items. Some feel this is our history being taken away. It reminds me of a slave auction of slavery times."

Wood said he understands the frustration.

"I get asked a lot of times, `What's a white guy like you doing with all this history material and slavery material?' " he said. "I tell people that I'm preserving history. It's a history a lot of people have tried to ignore."

But dealers are warning that some are trying to cash in by selling phony documents, shackles and freedom papers.

"I'm a little leery about the authenticity of chains and shackles," said Ray Rickman, a African-American who owns a bookstore in Providence. "Even if they're the proper date, there's no way to tell what they were used for. They could have been used for chain gangs."

Rickman said the boom in sales of slave memorabilia is a sign whites are more willing to acknowledge the slave era.

"I'm in favor of having these documents see the light of day as much as possible," he said. "All kinds of people and institutions with money want this material, and Southern institutions that never would have bought anything like this before are now in the market for it.

"They're no longer denying this went on."