In 1973 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The complex had a brick wall enclosed yard, a four-story building that contained a 'barracoon' or slave jail, a kitchen and a morgue. The current structure was once part of a complex of buildings known as Ryan's Mart. The Old Slave Mart Museum is a historic site that once served as one of the largest slave auction blocks in Charleston, SC. Wilson, who turned the location into a museum of African American history. The Old Slave Mart Museum is likely the only building still in existence in South Carolina used for slave auctioning. Several businesses operated in this space until 1938, when it was purchased by Miriam B. The slaves imprisoned at Ryan’s mart were released.Currently, only one slave market building still remains. There was such a large need for these types of private slave locations because at this time 38% of slaves entering the United States entered through Charleston. The Old Slave Mart Museum, located at 6 Chalmers Street, tells the story of Charlestons role in the domestic inter-state slave trade from 1856 to 1863. Old Slave Mart Museum Timing: 09:00 am - 05:00 pm. Old Slave Mart Museum Contact Number: +1-8439586467. Slaves in the Holy City were sold outside of the Old Exchange Building in a public open-air market. Old Slave Mart Museum Address: 6 Chalmers Street, Charleston, SC 29401, United States. Ryan’s mart was comprised of a four-story holding jail for captured slaves, called a “barracoon”, a kitchen, and a morgue, called a “dead house”, for slaves that perished during captivity. When the United States banished its participation in the international slave trade in 1808, the domestic slave business flourished, and Charleston became a hub for buyers of human flesh. Resultantly, private, enclosed facilities began to open on the streets surrounding the former public auction space.Ī city councilman named Thomas Ryan opened this market, known as Ryan’s mart, for private slave auctioning. This legislation forced slave traders and slave owners to find alternative methods of dealing.

Slavery would continue for nearly another 10 years.

Though that was the same day that the Old Slave Mart opened in the city. In this year, the city made the slave sales on the streets illegal. Constructed in 1859, this Gothic Revival, Romanesque building, with a stuccoed façade, was originally part of a slave market known as Ryans Slave Mart, and it covered a large. The first visual cue that slavery could be coming to an end (or at least the sale of slaves) was in 1856. In 1856, the state of South Carolina outlawed the public auctioning of slavery. One of the most unique and significant sites is the Old Slave Mart, at 6 Chalmers Street, a former slave auction gallery during the antebellum period in the mid-1800s. The fact that so many of Charlestons historic sites and museums dont shy away from the citys role in the slave trade speaks volumes to how far it has.

Charleston old slave market