Nathan Bedford Forest: Slave trader
Before Nathan Bedford Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army, before he was the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and before he was declared a war criminal for his part in the massacre of both black and white Union soldiers at the battle of Fort Pillow, he was a wealthy slave trader located in downtown Memphis, Tenn.
Forrest (the newspaper incorrectly spelled his name with only one “r”) placed a notice in the Memphis Daily Appeal on Jan. 21, 1857, telling the public of his “Negro Depot” at No. 87 Adams St. in Memphis.
Forrest was already one of the richest men in the South, having made a fortune through his three plantations, land deals and slave trading when he opened Negro Depot at the Adams Street location.
Today, the site is just a few blocks from the Mississippi River, across the street from the Memphis mayor’s office and across the street from a Comfort Inn.
The notice said that Forrest’s business was “one of the most complete and commodious establishments of the kind in the Southern country,” and bragged about the regulations, cleanliness, and comfort of the depot.
The Jan. 21 notice said that 25 “likely, young negroes” had just been received in Memphis and that there would be regular deliveries of new slaves every month.
That would be proved a short-lived venture. Within five years, Tennessee was under control of the Union Army and the Slave Depot no longer existed.
That did not mean Forrest was done, however. He continued as a general for the
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to American Slave Stories to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.