Jordan Arterburn (1808–1875) and Tarlton Arterburn (1810–1883) were brothers and interstate slave traders of the 19th-century United States. They typically bought enslaved people in their home state of Kentucky in the upper south, and then moved them to Mississippi in the lower south, where there was a constant demand for enslaved laborers on the plantations of King Cotton. Their "negroes wanted" advertisements ran in Louisville newspapers almost continuously from 1843 to 1859. In 1876, Tarlton Arterburn claimed they had taken profits of "30 to 40 percent a head" during their slave-trading days, and that Northern abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe had visited the Arterburn slave pen in Louisville while researching Uncle Tom's Cabin and A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. There is now a historical marker in Louisville at former site of the Arterburn slave jail, acknowledging the myriad abuses and human-rights violations that took place there.
Early years
Jordan Arterburn and Tarlton Arterburn were the seventh and eighth sons of William Arterburn and Rachel Smoots, who came to Kentucky from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The parents navigated the Ohio River on flatboats, and settled land near Beargrass Creek.
It is unclear when the Arterburns entered the slave trade but in 1839 there was a letter waiting for Tarlton Arterburn at the post office in Natchez, Mississippi, the site of the infamous Forks of the Road slave market. Based on "negroes wanted" advertisements placed in newspapers beginning in 1843, Tarlton Arterburn was originally in partnership with Matthew Garrison, another slave trader based in Louisville. According to local historians, the Arterburns were known for their "iron-barred coops." Slaves to be shipped south from Louisville were chained to one another and "marched up Main Street to board the boats in Portland to be shipped to New Orleans."
In 1844 the Jefferson County Court considered whether a trader named Arterburn could hold or sell an enslaved man named Frederick who had made a down payment on purchasing his freedom from his former owner, Crawford.
On February 17, 1845, a baby named Mary Eliza was born in Kentucky. When Mary Eliza died 86 years later in Louisville, Kentucky of and senility, her 1931 death certificate listed Margaret Shipp as her mother and Tarlton Arterburn as her father.
Beginning in 1845, the Arterburns began running a "series of advertisements which ran for several years" seeking to purchase "100 negroes for the Southern market, for which we will pay the highest prices." In 1845, Tarleton Arterburn advertised 70 "field hands, house servants" to be sold at the "Ferry Landing opposite Vicksburg." T. Arterburn was a registered voter in Vicksburg, Mississippi in February 1846. In November 1846 he placed an advertisement offering "30 YOUNG and likely NEGROES for sale, consisting of men, women and boys and girls, field hands and house servants, and two good blacksmiths" to be sold on Grove street near Washington street in Vicksburg. In John B. Jegli's Louisville, New-Albany, Jeffersonville, Shippingport and Portland directory for both 1845–46 and 1847–48, Jordan Arterburn, "negro trader" was resident at 35 1st Street in Louisville.
At the time of the 1850 census, Jordan and Tarlton Arteburn shared a household in the second district of Louisville; Jordan's listed occupation was "negro dealer."
Freedom seekers and Harriet Beecher Stowe
On Tuesday, August 24, 1852, seven enslaved men staged what was known as a "stampede," or mass escape, from the slave pen of the "Messrs. Arterburn." The Louisville Daily Courier wrote "We suppose they are 'pre-lying,' or lying out in some of the cornfields in the county." The freedom seekers were said to be wearing "heavy bracelets," meaning cast-iron shackles. On Saturday, August 28 it was reported that two of the seven freedom seekers were recaptured and would be returned to Arterburn in Louisville: "A party in pursuit came up with five of the slaves 15 miles beyond Jeffersonville, and commanded them to surrender, instead of which they ran off. Two shots were fired, wounding Luther, a smart daring fellow, for whose apprehension $250 reward is offered, and bringing down another of the party. The first, though much hurt, still managed to get away, but the other gave up. He was wounded in the legs with small shot. The other negro that was caught was Jim, who was found in a hay stack. They crossed the river at Harrod's creek. It is thought one of the seven is still in the neighborhood of this city." The ultimate fate of Luther and compatriots is unknown.