Slave Mart Museum

The Old Slave Mart, located on one of Charleston's few remaining cobblestone streets, is the only known extant building used as a slave auction gallery in South Carolina. Once part of a complex of buildings, the Slave Mart building is the only structure to remain. When it was first constructed in 1859, the open ended building was referred to as a shed. Slave auctions were held inside.

Customarily in Charleston, slaves were sold on the north side of the Exchange Building (then the Custom House). An 1856 city ordinance prohibited this practice of public sales, resulting in a number of sales rooms, yards, or marts along Chalmers, State and Queen Streets. The building was used for this purpose only a short time before the defeat of the South in the Civil War led to the end of slavery.

In 1938, the property was purchased by Miriam B. Wilson, who turned the site into a museum of African American history, arts and crafts.

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