Concubinage itself was fairly frequent, particularly in southern Louisiana; but no frequency of purchases for it as a predominant purpose can be demonstrated from authentic records.
[Footnote 27: Advertisement in the _Western Carolinian_ (Salisbury, N.C), July 12, 1834.] [Footnote 28: New Orleans _Bee_, Oct.

16, 1841.] Some of the dealers used public jails, taverns and warehouses for the assembling of their slaves, while others had stockades of their own.

That of Franklin and Armfield at Alexandria, managed by the junior member of the firm, was described by a visitor in July, 1835.

In addition to a brick residence and office, it comprised two courts, for the men and women respectively, each with whitewashed walls, padlocked gates, cleanly barracks and eating sheds, and a hospital which at this time had no occupants.

In the men's yards "the slaves, fifty or sixty in number, were standing or moving about in groups, some amusing themselves with rude sports, and others engaged in conversation which was often interrupted by loud laughter in all the varied tones peculiar to negroes." They were mostly young men, but comprised a few boys of from ten to fifteen years old.