Original slave auctioneer token of W. W. Wilbur, South Carolina and dated 1846.

Tokens such as these were a common form of marketing one’s business or trade in the 19th Century. The obverse reads “Merchants & Manufacturers Agent – Collection Broker, Notary Public, & Etc.” with the unmistakable palm of South Carolina’s state seal within. The reverse of the coin reads “W.W. Wilbur, Auction & Commission Merchant – Charleston So. Ca. – Going At Only a Penny – 1846” with a depiction of the auctioneer himself in the center.

Wilbur was a well-known and aggressive auctioneer who operated in the pre-Civil War years in Charleston, South Carolina. Among the items he is documented to have sold include utensils and cutlery, books and stationary, tea and coffee, fruit trees, flowers, real estate and land, dry goods, estate sales, and enslaved men, women, and children.

[African American History, Black Americana, Frederick Douglass, Abolition, Emancipation, Slavery, Slave, Abolitionist, John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Union, Confederate]