Slaves and Wives: A Question of Consent?

Abstract

In 1807, the English parliament outlawed the slave trade and, in 1838, it ended chattel slavery in its colonies. But in the modern liberty-loving England of 1847, we find a report in the Stamford Mercury of a woman being sold at public auction in Lincolnshire:

On Wednesday … it was announced by the crye, that the wife of Geo. Wray, of Barrow … would be offered for sale by auction in the Barton market-place at 11 O’clock; … punctually to the time the salesman made his appearance with the lady, the latter having a new halter tied round her waist. Amidst the shouts of the lookers on, the lot was put up, and … knocked down to Wm. Harwood, waterman, for the sum of one shilling, three-halfpence to be returned ‘for luck’. Harwood walked off arm in arm with his smiling bargain, with as much coolness as if he had purchased a new coat or hat.

(Thompson, 1991: 417)