SITE 5: ESPLANADE AND CHARTRES: COMPOUND OF THEOPHILUS FREEMAN AND SOLOMON NORTHUP MARKER

A present-day color photo of the intersection of Esplanade Avenue and Chartres Streets. On the right, in the neutral ground (or median), stands a historical marker indicating the nearby site of the slave pen from which Solomon Northup was sold.

Esplanade Avenue at Chartres Street

A watercolor poster shows a one-story yellow building on the corner of Esplanade and Chartres that was offered for sale in 1866. The poster includes a map showing the property’s location and a plan of the layout of buildings included in the sale.

Property used as a slave trading compound throughout the antebellum period

A photo of the page from notary Edward Barnett’s record book showing the 1841 sale of Northup and two other people. Northup and Harry were sold for 900 dollars each, and Drady was sold for 700 dollars.

Notarized bill of sale for Solomon Northup, called “Platt”

A newspaper ad placed by Hope H. Slatter, a slave trader, with the headline, “100 Negroes for sale.” They had just been brought from Virginia and Maryland, and they included house servants, mechanics, cooks, nurses, and field hands.

An 1846 ad announcing “100 negroes for sale” by trader Hope Hull Slatter

A newspaper ad from April 18, 1862, announces the arrival of 30 Negroes” from Virginia, who are field hands, house servants, a seamstress, and small girls. The slave trader is Joseph Bruin, at the corner of Chartres and Moreau Streets.

An 1862 ad for a slave trader located a block from Esplanade and Chartres

Listen to Track 5 - Esplanade and Chartres: Compound of Theophilus Freeman and Solomon Northup Marker (above).


Next listen to Track 5a - Solomon Northup Remembers Freeman's Slave Yard.


Directions: At Esplanade and Chartres, cross the first half of the street to the median (or neutral ground, as we say in New Orleans) and pause to read the marker about Solomon Northup, erected by the Afro-Louisiana Historical and Genealogical Society. 

(AUDIO) DIRECTIONS TO SITE 6: FRANKLIN AND ARMFIELD COMPOUND