Did you know the original Black Friday had nothing to do with shopping and everything to do with Black people being sold at a discount? Long before holiday sales and TVs and shopping carts, plantation owners had their own version of Black Friday.
Every late fall and early winter, slaveholders across the South held massive auctions to clear out inventory before the year ended. If a plantation was deep in debt, if a harvest failed, if a slaveholder needed quick cash, they lined Black men, women, and children on wooden platforms and marked them down. Prices were based on age, skin tone, strength, and obesity. Babies were sold alone because they were cheaper. Elders were discounted like used furniture, and families were ripped apart so white owners could make end-of-year money.
These auctions happened after Thanksgiving, in the cold, during the same season millions celebrate today without knowing its shadow. When enslavers said "Black Friday," it was literal: a Friday where Black people were sold, a Friday where Black families were destroyed, a Friday where Black life had a price tag.
