Isaac Franklin and John Armfield were not just slave traders; they were industrialists of human misery and were the most influential and ruthless slave traders in the history of the United States. Operating in the 1820s and 1830s, they turned the US domestic slave trade into a highly efficient, large-scale business, making vast fortunes from the sale and forced migration of thousands of enslaved Africans. Their business, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, was the largest slave trading firm in the country. Yet, despite their outsized role in shaping America’s economy and society, their names remain relatively obscure in mainstream history.
Franklin and Armfield entered the domestic slave trade at a critical moment in American history. The transatlantic slave trade had been outlawed in 1808, but the demand for enslaved labour, particularly in the cotton-producing states of the Deep South, was soaring. Virginia, Maryland, and other Upper South states had a surplus of enslaved laborers, making them prime sources for traders looking to capitalize on this demand.
Franklin, born in 1789 in Tennessee to a wealthy planter family, was exposed to the slave trade from an early age. By his late teens, he had already begun transporting enslaved Africans from Virginia to the Deep South. His career was briefly interrupted when he fought in the War of 1812, but after returning, he fully committed himself to the business. Unlike his brothers, who moved on to other pursuits, Franklin saw slave trading as his life’s work.
Armfield, born in 1797 in North Carolina, took a more indirect route into the trade. His family were Quakers who owned a small number of enslaved Africans. After various failed business ventures, including a small shop that he was forced to abandon following a scandalous affair, Armfield drifted into slave trading. He met Franklin in the early 1820s, and the two men quickly formed a bond and together, they sold more enslaved Africans, separated more families, and made more money from the trade than almost anyone else in the United States.
John Armfield and Isaac Franklin
In 1828, Franklin and Armfield formalized their partnership and set up their headquarters at 1315 Duke Street in Alexandria, Virginia. The townhouse, which still stands today as the Freedom House Museum, became the nerve center of their operations. From this location, Armfield managed the procurement of enslaved Africans, while Franklin oversaw their sale in the Deep South.
Their business model was brutally efficient. They placed daily advertisements in newspapers seeking enslaved Africans for purchase. Armfield, stationed in Alexandria, oversaw the “buying side” of the operation. He sent agents throughout Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware to seek out enslaved Africans, often knocking on plantation doors and making offers to owners looking to sell. Once acquired, these individuals were held in a slave jail behind the Alexandria townhouse or crammed into its basement, awaiting transportation.
The next step was transportation. The slaves were either marched in massive groups known as “coffles” for 1,000 miles to markets in Natchez and New Orleans, or they were shipped via specially commissioned slave ships. Franklin and Armfield’s ships were notorious for their horrific conditions—the enslaved were given even less space than those transported during the transatlantic slave trade. The firm also employed dehumanizing tactics to maximize profits, such as force-feeding captives to “fatten them up,” dying gray hair to make individuals appear younger, and covering scars with wax to make them look “healthier” to potential buyers.
Franklin and Armfield did not just trade slaves they personally owned; they also acted as middlemen for other traders, taking a commission on every sale. This allowed them to handle even larger volumes of enslaved people.
At their peak, Franklin and Armfield were selling approximately 1,000 enslaved africans per year. In total, historians estimate they trafficked around 10,000 people, making them the largest and most profitable slave traders in American history.
To increase efficiency, Franklin and Armfield squeezed every possible profit from their victims. They charged slaveowners 25 cents per day to house enslaved people in their jail, ensuring no space was wasted.
Beyond their business acumen, Franklin and Armfield were known for their exceptional cruelty. Much like Thomas Thistlewood—the serial rapist who meticulously documented his assaults on his slaves in a diary—their surviving correspondence includes boasts about raping enslaved women they processed through their firm. This was not an uncommon practice among enslavers, but what set Franklin and Armfield apart was the way they openly celebrated their acts of sexual violence in letters to each other.
Both men fathered children with enslaved african women, yet they exhibited no concern for their fates. Franklin, for instance, had a child with an enslaved woman he raped over a five-year period. When he married a wealthy socialite in 1839, he immediately sold both the woman and their child. Their fate remains unknown.
Despite their notoriety in the slave trade, Franklin and Armfield faced no social stigma in white society. One of the greatest myths about slavery is that the upper class disapproved of slave traders, considering them socially undesirable. In reality, Franklin and Armfield moved in elite circles. Franklin was known as a generous host who entertained prominent white figures with expensive liquor and lavish dinner parties. Even Armfield, the less outgoing of the two, impressed visitors with his manners.
Their respectability remained intact even after they left the slave trade. Sensing the impending financial panic of 1837, they sold their business at the height of its success. Franklin spent his retirement managing plantations in Tennessee and Louisiana, while Armfield purchased and successfully ran a luxury resort in Tennessee (Beersheba Springs). Both men died wealthy and unrepentant—Franklin in 1846 and Armfield in 1871.
Despite the vast scale of their operations, Franklin and Armfield have largely escaped the scrutiny of history.
The Freedom House Museum, located in their former Alexandria headquarters, serves as one of the few reminders of their horrific legacy. Visitors can walk through the same building where enslaved Africans were once held before being sent to a lifetime of forced labour in the Deep South.
Sources:
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/franklin-and-armfield/
https://www.al.com/news/2019/09/the-hidden-history-of-americas-richest-cruelest-slave-owners.html
https://www.nps.gov/places/franklin-and-armfield-office.htm
