The auction sale held on January 13th, 1860, in Huntsville stood out as a notable event, chronicled in The Randolph Citizen of Huntsville, Missouri. Dubbed the New Year’s Sale in the advertisement, the article practically boasted about the high prices Negroes fetched at public auctions the previous week.

The list of prices reveals the transactions of some Negroes sold by Sheriff Wisdom, who administered the estate of the deceased George Swetnam. Among them were George, aged 18, sold for $1381; Lucinda, aged 17, fetching $1250; Henry, aged 14, garnering $1200; an unnamed woman, aged 35, accompanied by two small children, sold for $1200; Ellen, a girl, fetching $755; Celia, aged 12, selling for $850; Jim, a boy aged 9, going for $750; and Joe, a boy aged 4, purchased for $278.