The Pensacola Slave Auctions Project

For more than a century, human beings were bought and sold in Pensacola. The names of those enslaved, however — and of those who participated in this evil trade — have largely been forgotten. There are no plaques or markers at the spots where enslaved people were brought ashore or the places where they were auctioned.

The Pensacola Slave Auctions Project aims to thoroughly document the slave auctions that took place here, and to establish definitively the locations in Pensacola where enslaved people were bought and sold.

Documented slave auctions

Documented slave auction sites

Henry Michelet’s Auction Store
location: Northwest corner Baylen and Government Streets

A native of Marseilles, France, Henrique Michelet emigrated to then-Spanish West Florida in the early 1800s, settling in Pensacola. By the 1820s, he was serving as a city alderman and operating an auction house, where he frequently auctioned enslaved people.

Advertisements in 1824 issues of the Pensacola Gazette place Michelet’s auction house at the “corner of Palafox and Baylen streets,” an obvious error as the two streets run parallel and do not intersect. More than likely, Michelet’s auction house was located at the corner of Government and Baylen Streets, where Michelet owned Lot 118, Old City.

THE OLD SPANISH COURTHOUSE
location: JEFFERSON STREET BETWEEN CHURCH AND ZARAGOZA STREETS

When Pensacola became a United States possession in 1821, officials continued to use the old Spanish courthouse, a two-story wooden building located on the east side of Plaza Ferdinand VII. In 1827, the U.S. repaired and painted the courthouse building, and it continued to be used as for both local and federal courts until around 1860, when the building burned.

As in other Southern cities, enslaved persons — viewed legally as property — were auctioned on Pensacola’s courthouse steps to settle estates, unpaid taxes, and other legal matters.