Old Slave Mart

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Lonely Planet review

The Old Slave Mart is part of South Carolina's painful past. Captured Africans were once stored here in the 'barracoon' (slave jail) before being taken to the mail hall and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Slaves stood on auction blocks to be inspected by wealthy plantation owners before being taken away to work the rows of cotton, indigo and tobacco. After the Civil War the market became a tenement building, before being turned into an African American crafts museum in 1938. The current museum was opened in 2007.