| Austin Woolfolk | |
| Birth Date: | 1796 |
| Birth Place: | Georgia, U.S. |
| Death Date: | 1847 |
| Death Place: | Auburn, Alabama, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Slave trader |
Austin Woolfolk (17961847) was an American slave trader and plantation owner. Among the busiest slave traders in Maryland, he trafficked more than 2,000 enslaved people through the Port of Baltimore to the Port of New Orleans,[1] and became notorious in time for selling Frederick Douglass's aunt, and for assaulting Benjamin Lundy after the latter had criticized him.
Austin Woolfolk was born in 1796 in the U.S. state of Georgia.[2] He served as lieutenant in Andrew Jackson's army during the War of 1812, serving under his father Colonel William Woolfolk. Woolfolk participated in the Battle of New Orleans.[3] He moved to Baltimore in 1815 or 1819, where he married Emily Sparks in 1839 with whom he had four children, two of which were adopted.[4] [2] [5]
Woolfolk became a slave trader in Baltimore, where he had an office on Pratt Street, with a pen where he kept his slaves.[2] Even though he advertised in newspapers, he moved his slaves at night to avoid attracting attention.[2] He became notorious for selling Frederick Douglass's aunt, and for assaulting Benjamin Lundy after the latter had criticized him. For this attack, Woolfolk pleaded guilty to assault, and received a one dollar fine and was ordered to pay court costs.[2]
Woolfolk was driven "out of business" by slave traders Isaac Franklin and John Armfield when they moved to Baltimore.[6] Woolfolk died February 10, 1847 in Auburn, Alabama.[7]
Austin Woolfolk's brothers, Samuel Martin Woolfolk, Joseph Biggers Woolfolk, and Richard Woolfolk, and two of his uncles, John Woolfolk of Augusta, Georgia, and Austin Woolfolk, also worked in the slave trade.[8] One Augustin Woolfolk may also have been a relation and slave trader.
According to a Woolfolk family history published in 2004, "Some say he was engaged in slave trading...but more likely he was buying large numbers of slaves to use on his extensive sugar plantations in Iberville Parish, Louisiana." Historians of slavery have found that owning a plantation in the sales region was a "time-worn" technique for slave traders who sought to obscure the purpose of their traffic in large numbers of slaves, which could arguably endanger their reputation in the community or in some cases put them in legal jeopardy. Furthermore, according to professional historians, Woolfolk was a pioneer magnate of Baltimore-based slave trading, along with figures like Joseph S. Donovan, Bernard M. Campbell, and Hope H. Slatter. In 1933 Mississippi historian Charles S. Sydnor called Woolfolk a slave trader "too famous to require comment." The journal Civil War History published a monograph about slave trader Woolfolk in 1977. A reviewer in the Journal of Southern History commended the 2004 Woolfolk book as an "exemplar of modern genealogical work" but criticized the author's "hagiographic slant...Moreover, Woolfolk subtly presents the Civil War in the 'Lost Cause' mode...In one of several instances of this, she writes: 'Woolfolk family members...supported the Confederate cause for states' rights' as if states' rights was the cause of the Civil War. And, although passing references are made to the Woolfolk family slaves, their participation in the narrative is minute compared to the contribution they made to the family's fortunes." Woolfolk himself advertised to the sell side as he did to the buy side. The following advertisement appeared in the newspaper of Woodville, Mississippi for three months:
| Austin Woolfolk's Jail | |
| Coordinates: | 39.2863°N -76.6283°W |
| Status: | Defunct |
| Capacity: | 40+ |
| City: | Baltimore |
| State: | Maryland |
| Country: | United States |
More than 30 years after his death, a newspaper described Woolfolk's former premises:[9]
The jail was known to antebellum abolitionists, who reported that it could house 40 or more people prior to shipment south. According to historian William Calderhead, "The movement of his charges to Baltimore was accomplished either by steamboat or small sailing vessel from the outports along the Chesapeake or by wagon or hack from nearby land connections."
The site of Woolfolk's slave jail is now a Baltimore city park.[10]
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