(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Business card of "J.W. Odell, Negro Broker."

(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Business card of "J.W. Odell, Negro Broker." Printed card, 2 x 3½ inches, in blue on coated white stock; unrelated pencil note on verso, ½-inch crease in lower corner, otherwise minimal soiling and wear. Knoxville, TN, circa 1861-1863 John Walters Odell (1817-1902?) was a Maryland native who came to Tennessee with his parents as a young man. He ran advertisements in Knoxville newspapers from at least November 1860 to July 1861, with an office on Gay Street where he promised "the highest prices given for slaves." This business card advertises "Slaves bought and sold on commission . . . . Keeps on hand a large number of Negroes for sale." The names of six references are provided, including "Gen. Jos. A. Mabry," a civilian who earned his honorific title as a benefactor of the Confederate Army early in the Civil War. This card dates from the war era, but before the Union occupation of Knoxville in September 1863. We trace no other extant examples of this business card, although the Massachusetts Historical Society owns a lantern-slide reproduction of one.