There were two enslaved women in which Hammond took a particular interest. In January 1839 Hammond purchased an eighteen-year-old named Sally Johnson and her one-year-old daughter, Louisa, for nine hundred dollars with the idea that Sally would serve as one of his “house slaves.” These positions were typically assigned to Blacks who for one reason or another were deemed attractive: good looks, good teeth, good diction, or light skin. In Charleston’s thirty-two slave brokerages, Sally would likely have been graded a “Fancy Girl.” While many such women were, like Sally, selected for duties in
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