Rediscovering Aleck: The Forgotten Origins and Memorial History of a Fictional Slave Sale Advertisement

Abstract: This article examines the fictional origins of a widely reproduced broadside for an 1852 slave auction in Charleston, South Carolina, that has for the last century been accepted as an authentic relic of the slave trade. Close analysis of the document's content and the local history of Charleston reveals numerous discrepancies that establish the document's inauthenticity and illustrate the value of basic corroboration and contextualization to historical inquiry. Tracing the document's actual origins to an 1892 fictional illustration, the article shows how its long career as an object of historical memory can shed light on the shifting and contested ways in which Americans have remembered the role of slavery and African Americans in the nation's past.