e to say, there has not been found a single
issue of either of these papers, which mentions the selling price of
slaves or any transaction in Negroes. If there was a trade in slaves
which was regarded purely as a commercial enterprise, as some would
have us think, then it is very hard to understand why these splendid
trade papers did not contain any account of the business.

There were some Louisville business men who bought and sold slaves as
only one of the branches of their commercial activities. This would
account to some extent for the failure to list traders in the local
directories for it is noticeable that such men never called themselves
slave dealers. As early as the year 1825 John Stickney established
the _Louisville Intelligence Office_ on Main Street, which was a sort
of labor and real estate exchange. He advertised that he sold books;
had money to loan; houses for rent and sale; horses and Negroes for
sale and hire; carriages for sale; conducted a labor exchange, and
recommended the best boarding houses.[271] A year later J. C. Gentry
opened the "Western Horse Market" at the corner of Market and Fourth
Streets. He advertised that he conducted a livery stable, and also
sold on commission, at public or private sale, horses, carriages,
cattle, wagons and slaves; and that he would conduct an auction on
Wednesdays and Saturdays.[272] A similar case was that of A. C. Scott,
who in 1854 opened a real estate and land office but who stated in the
press that he not only bought and sold land and rented houses but that
he would sell and hire slaves.[273] Consequently Scott was listed as a
real estate and land agent in the local directories. It is impossible
to determine how many of these occasional slave dealers there were,
but in so far as available material shows these three were the only
ones to announce their trade publicly.

It would appear from all the evidence at hand that while Kentucky
furnished many slaves for the southern market there was no general
internal slave trade, as a commercial enterprise. There were in
Louisville, however, a few heartless business men who took advantage
of the decreasing value of slave labor in Kentucky and the rising
prices of slaves in the far South. In this respect, Kentucky became a
field of supply for the slave markets of the lower South.

Unfortunately there are no statistics available by which the number of
slaves sent south can be computed. The most comprehensive anti-sl