Editor’s Note: This article is part of “The Unfinished Revolution,” a project exploring 250 years of the American experiment.

Thirty-one years ago, there was a slave auction at Colonial Williamsburg.

On October 10, 1994, two Black men and two Black women were led up the steps and onto the porch of an 18th-century tavern. They were made to stand in front of thousands of people as their bodies were examined by prospective buyers. An auctioneer informed the crowd that only gentlemen with appropriate letters of credit would be permitted to bid. Some in the crowd looked on in astonishment; some turned away and began to cry. That the people onstage were actors did not make the spectacle easy to watch.

“It was done realistically, with all the horror and pain that you’d expect,” Ron Hurst told

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