Alonzo J. White

Alonzo James White (March 22, 1812 – July 1, 1885) was an American businessman and slave trader from Charleston, South Carolina who was known as a "notorious" He was also a partner in Jervey, Waring & White with Morton A. Waring and James Jervey.

Antebellum life and work According to the family bible record kept by White's father, attorney John Blake White, "my third son was born, and was baptised Alonzo James on the 22nd May, following by the Revd. Mr. Fowler, at St. Phillips Church, my sister Sarah & myself being his sponsors...In November 1813, My dear Eliza was taken ill with measles, with which she was very ill. Shortly after, all of our children were taken with the same disease altogether; with whom it has as yet proven very favorable. Except Alonzo, they have all had the whooping cough—and by means of the blessed discovery of the vaccine, they have escaped that terrible disease, the small pox." Eliza Allston White died in 1817, when Alonzo was five years old. Contemporary scholars have estimated that the total sale price was about . White's take would have been if Jervey, Waring & White took the typical 2.5 percent sales commission, split three ways.

On March 29, 1838, 26-year-old Alonzo J. White married Eliza Ingraham at Charleston. Almost exactly nine months later, on December 26, 1838, their first child was born, son Abbot Brisbane White. At the time of the 1840 census White lived in a Charleston household with five free whites, one free person of color, and five enslaved black or mixed-race people. A daughter, Martha Allston White, was born in October 1840. According to the family Bible, babies came regularly for the next few years: "Blake Leay, third child of Alonzo & Eliza White, born the 20th September, 1842. Alonzo James their fourth child, Born the 21st March 1845. Eliza Allston, their fifth child born 19th January 1847. 23rd May 1849, a sixth child, a son of Alonzo J. & Eliza M. White, born this day, was baptised 17th June in extremis, Nathanial Ingraham." In March 1846, Alonzo J. White shipped six enslaved people, Hester, Adam, two-year-old Susan, Thomas, Frank and Allen, via the brig Arabian, from Charleston to New Orleans At the time of the 1850 U.S. census of the Charleston parish of St. Michael and St. Phillip, White was the legal owner of nine enslaved people, five female, four male, aged two to 36. He lived in town with his wife and six children, aged one to 12, and had real estate valued at . He was on the board of trustees of the College of Charleston in 1851, 1852, 1853, and 1857. On August 6, 1852, Alonzo J. White became the father of twins, a boy, William Moultrie White, and a girl, Louisa Hall White.

On Thursday, March 10, 1853, at 11 a.m., White held an auction at the cobblestoned plaza on the north side of the Charleston Customs House. Conditions of the sale were "one-third cash. Balance two and three years with interest from date of sale payable annually secured by bonds, mortgage of property sold, and approved personal security." British artist Eyre Crowe, on tour through the United States with the writer William Thackeray, sketched the outdoor auction in between assisting with Thackeray's three-lecture series at the Hibernian Hall. In a history published 1937, historian Frederic Bancroft described the Charleston scene in contrast with the images of a slave sale Crowe had sketched in Virginia:

Detail of doodles on page image 14 of the Alonzo J. White account book, which lists hundreds of slaves he offered for auction between 1853 and 1863: The doodles include the signatures of Pvt. John Monroe and Capt. John D. Terry of the U.S. Colored Troops, and what appears to be an American eagle; this page was otherwise the third page of a four-page list of "negroes belonging to" Dr. J. W. Schmidt, who had a plantation in St. Bartholomew's Parish, Colleton District, as well as his "city negroes" On June 28, 1853, James Blake White recorded that his granddaughter, baby Louisa White, had died at the family home on the corner of Laurens Street and East Bay. In 1855, one of the people enslaved by the Whites had a baby: "White (formerly Jervey). (Jackson), son of William (servant of Mrs. John Johnson), and of Sary (servant of Mrs. Alonzo J. White, formerly of Wm. Jervey). Born Aug. 14, 1855, was baptized Sept. 21, 1855, in private, being ill." In 1856, along with fellow Charleston slave traders Louis D. DeSaussure and Ziba B. Oakes, White opposed a new South Carolina law requiring that slave sales take place indoors rather than on the streets. Their argument was that the law was "an impolitic admission that would give 'strength to the opponents of slavery' and 'create among some portions of the community a doubt as to the moral right of slavery itself.'" White's father, John Blake White, a respected citizen and apparently a talented artist, died at the age of 79 on August 25, 1859. Despite his earlier objections to selling slaves indoors, White became one of the Charleston traders who used the building now known as the Old Slave Mart for auctions, such as the January 23, 1860 sale of "Sixty-Five Negroes Accustomed to the Culture of Cotton and Provisions." White continued selling people during the American Civil War, including Old Phillis, Venus and her three children, and Martha and her three children. In 1863 owner-editor R. Barnwell Rhett Jr. considered selling the financially challenged Charleston Mercury newspaper to White but they were unable to agree on terms.

Later life and death Alonzo J. White oath of allegiance to U.S. Constitution and acknowledgement of emancipation of the formerly enslaved, signed October 12, 1865 After the close of the American Civil War, on October 13, 1865, Alonzo J. White completed the Confederate pardon-amnesty process, including pledging to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution and agreeing to accept the emancipation of all former slaves, and the U.S. government returned control of the residence at 58 East Bay, Charleston, and other properties, to White. In 1866, White was back to work as a broker but was restricted to selling houses, mills, plantations, and foundries, rather than people. In 1867 a freedman trying to find work for his daughter, who was looking for a first job, presented as a credential that she and her mother had formerly been legally owned by A.J. White. (The young lady was duly hired but quit after four days; her erstwhile employer recorded in a journal: "Diana the 2nd took up her baggage and with her Kind and indulgent Parent returned to her home to enjoy Domestic tranquility & Peace.")

In 1880, White and his son Blake L. White were partners in Alonzo J. White & Son, a firm located at 58 East Bay of "real estate, stock and bond brokers." Another son, Alonzo J. White Jr. was Charleston city sheriff, based at City Hall.