Demonstrable talents in artisanry would of course enhance a man's value; and unusual good looks on the part of a young woman might stimulate the bidding of men interested in concubinage.

Episodes of the latter sort were occasionally reported; but in at least one instance inquiry on the spot showed that sex was not involved.

This was the case of the girl Sarah, who was sold to the highest bidder on the auction block in the rotunda of the St.Louis Hotel at New Orleans in 1841 at a price of eight thousand dollars.

The onlookers were set agog, but a newspaper man promptly found that the sale had been made as a mere form in the course of litigation and that the bidding bore no relation to the money which was to change hands.[28] Among the thousands of bills of sale which the present writer has scanned, in every quarter of the South, many have borne record of exceptional prices for men, mostly artisans and "drivers"; but the few women who brought unusually high prices were described in virtually every case as fine seamstresses, parlor maids, laundresses, hotel cooks, and the like.

Another indication against the multiplicity of purchases for concubinage is that the great majority of the women listed in these records were bought in family groups.