Crawford, Frazer & Co.
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Slave trade |
| Founded | January 1863 |
| Founder | Robert Crawford, Addison D. Frazer, Thomas Lafayette Frazer |
| Defunct | April 1864 |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia , United States |
Area served | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Products | Enslaved people (slave brokerage) |
Crawford, Frazer & Co. was a slave-trading enterprise operating in Atlanta, Georgia throughout the 1860s. Established by Robert Crawford alongside Addison D. Frazer and Thomas Lafayette Frazer, the company conducted business from January 1863 until it was dissolved in April 1864. Together with Robert Clarke, this firm ranked among Atlanta's largest slave brokerage operations during that period. Following the dissolution of the partnership, Crawford continued his trade in Atlanta, while the Frazer brothers shifted their activities to Montgomery, Alabama. Both parties terminated their involvement after the Confederate defeat in the American Civil War. The company is historically recognized for its negro mart, which was prominently featured in a well-known Civil War-era photograph of Atlanta taken before the city’s burning.
History
On May 26, 1863, Crawford, Frazer & Co. placed an advertisement in the Southern Confederacy presenting themselves as commission merchants, auctioneers, and dealers in enslaved individuals. The ad emphasized their secure Negro Yard and Lock Up located at No. 8 Whitehall Street.[1] Their auction venue and slave holding pen were situated at 8 Whitehall Street, positioned between Alabama and Hunter Streets,[2] adjacent to the Macon & Western Railroad tracks.[3] This location corresponds roughly to the present-day Five Points MARTA station within the Underground Atlanta area.[4] In 1863, the Atlanta Intelligencer commended their enterprise while acknowledging Atlanta’s emergence as a significant slave market competing with Richmond, Virginia.[3]
The Atlanta History Center preserves a receipt from Crawford, Frazer & Co., dated May 2, 1863, documenting the sale of "Harry about 34 & Hannah 30" to John P. Hulst for $3,600, presumably paid in Confederate currency.[5] Another surviving sales record lists Ben, aged 21, sold for $3,200.[6] In September of that year, the firm contributed $1,000 to support Confederate soldiers wounded during the Battle of Chickamauga.[7]
In autumn 1864, photographer George N. Barnard documented several commercial buildings on Whitehall Street including the storefront of Crawford, Frazer & Co., shortly after General William T. Sherman’s capture of Atlanta but prior to its destruction by fire.[8][3]
In Lens of War, Stephen Berry argues that a well-known photograph depicting a corporal from the U.S. Colored Troops reading outside the building was probably staged; Sherman neither deployed USCT units nor favored African Americans.[9] Berry emphasizes ambiguities surrounding the photograph’s subjects and purpose but highlights its symbolic contrast between literacy and a defunct slave trading operation: "Those days are over."[9]
See also
- Atlanta campaign
- Contrabands during the American Civil War
- African Americans in Atlanta
- List of Georgia slave traders
- History of slavery in Georgia
- ↑ "Southern confederacy. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1861-1865, May 26, 1863, Image 2 « Georgia Historic Newspapers". gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named:0 - ↑ Davis, Stephen (2016-12-15). 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.
- ↑ "Crawford, Frazer & Co. receipt, 1863 May 2 - Digital Library of Georgia". dlg.usg.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
- ↑ West Publishing Company's Docket. West Publishing Company. 1909. p. 545. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
- ↑ 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.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ↑ Barnard, George N. (1864). "["Auction & Negro Sales," Whitehall Street]". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Gallman, J. Matthew; Gallagher, Gary W. (2015). https://books.google.com/books?id=BRHUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA215. Lens of War: Exploring Iconic Photographs of the Civil War. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-4811-7.
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