A Brief History of Loudoun County Slavery
I wish to purchase a large number of Negroes for the Southern market-men, women, boys, girls, and families, for which I will pay the highest price in cash. Persons having slaves to dispose of will find it to their interest to give me a call before selling.
John Avis, slave trader
Diagram for Shipping Slaves, 18th Century
Courtesy of the Virginia Historical Society
The first slaves arrived in Loudoun shortly after the first Europeans in the 1720s. Purchased in Alexandria, Virginia, most of these slaves came straight from Africa.
Richmond, Virginia Slave Auction
Courtesy of Valentine Museum
Of the 20,000 people who lived in the county on the eve of the Civil War, about 5,000 were slaves. One Loudoun family owned more than 100. On the average, a slave-owning family had less than 10 slaves.
Virginia Slaves Sold to the Deep South
Courtesy of Library of Congress
In decades leading up to the Civil War much of the surplus slave population in the Upper South was sold to the new plantations in the Deep South.
Illustration of Loudoun County Court House,
From Yardley Taylor Map of Loudoun County, 1854
