Bernard Kendig

Bernard Kendig (–1872) was an American slave trader, primarily operating in New Orleans. He sold enslaved people at comparatively low prices, and dealt primarily in and around Louisiana, rather than importing large numbers of enslaved people from the border states or Chesapeake region. Kendig was sued a number of times under Louisiana's redhibition (warranty) laws and accused of having willfully misrepresented the health or character of slaves he sold.

Life and work

Kendig was a native of Pennsylvania, born sometime around 1813. A former partner described Kendig's working life in a court case: "Kendig is in the Negro trade; has seen him bidding on Negroes; sees him often in Negro traders' yards; saw him there again this morning." Similarly, Kendig was somewhat unusual relative to his peers in that the majority of his customers were probably from New Orleans rather than from more rural regions of the Mississippi River valley occupied by sugar and cotton plantation owners and their enslaved work forces. Between 1852 and 1860 notarial records show that he sold at least 758 people (or about 95 people a year). A woman named Henrietta Blanchard sought out a "negro trader" named Parker Pettiway at Kendig's and shot him in the gut.

Kendig frequently sought medical assessment and/or care for enslaved people at New Orleans' Touro Infirmary because upon release Kendig was provided with a certificate that his human property had been treated, which he could then turn around and use as validation and as a selling point. Along with Thomas Foster, Kendig was one "of the largest and the wealthiest of the slave traders doing business with Touro in its antebellum phase." An analysis of the Touro admission books by historian Stephen Kenny finds "all but four of the slave patients Kendig sent to Touro Infirmary were born outside of New Orleans...As the majority of Kendig's slave patients are recorded as having spent between six and sixteen weeks in the city, this suggests that while Kendig was not a major importer of slaves, the slaves that he did import were those in his stock of human property most in need of medical attention."

According to historian Richard Tansey, Kendig's business practices made him rich: As of 1860, Kendig claimed he "owned in real estate and an other in personal wealth. Only two of the thirty-four slave dealers listed in this census owned more wealth. Thus, Kendig was among the wealthiest members of the slave trading fraternity." in Sadsbury, Chester County, Pennsylvania for about In 1866, Kendig's barn caught fire for unknown reasons, destroying the building and "one calf, all the wagon harnesses, and other contents." Bernard Kendig is listed as a decedent of 1872 and father to Franklin Kendig in the decedents' index of the Chester County, Pennsylvania Orphans' Court Minors Files of 1714–1881. In 1873, the Sadsbury farm of Benjamin Kendig, deceased, consisting of 211 acres of land and improvements, was listed for sale.