Old Slave Mart Mueum
Established in 1938, the Old Slave Mart Museum is Charleston’s oldest museum of African American history and the first museum on the history of slavery in the United States. Located in the heart of downtown Charleston, the museum is housed in a portion of the city’s last major slave market. Today, the Old Slave Mart Museum is owned and operated by the City of Charleston and is dedicated to sharing the story of the domestic slave trade.
Named after its original owner and operator, Thomas Ryan, Ryan’s Mart opened on July 1, 1856. It came to be after a city ordinance banned slave auctions around the Old Exchange Building, previously Charleston’s busiest slave trading destination. It was later sold to local slave trader Ziba Oakes, at which point it became known as “the Mart.” It operated for seven years, closing in 1863 when Union bombardment forced its evacuation and closure. Slave trading continued in other parts of Charleston until February 1865, when the city was reclaimed by the U. S. Army.
The Old Slave Mart Museum is located at the site of Ryan’s Mart, Charleston’s most prominent location for public slave auctions on the eve of the American Civil War.
Recommended Reading
Books that we recommend to all visitors to better understand the history of African Americans. Some of these titles are sold in the Old Slave Mart Museum’s gift shop, please inquire about them when you visit.
The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration, by Michelle Alexander
Slaves in the Family, by Edward Ball
Slave Trading in the Old South, by Frederic Bancroft
Slavery By Another Name, by Douglas Blackmon
Sweetgrass Baskets and the Gullah Tradition, by Joyce V. Coakley
Far More Terrible for Women,
Slave narratives from women who were
enslaved in various slaveholding states, edited by Patrick Minges
Voices of Black South Carolina, Legend & Legacy, by Damon L. Fordham