Site of Denning Exeter St. Slave Pen
Site where the business of slavery once took place.
While nothing remains to indicate what once transpired here, we pinpoint this location to memorialize the victims of enslavement in America.
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This was one of two locations where John N. Denning operated as a slave trader. He was here at 104 N. Exeter Street in the early 1840s. (Street numbers were changed in 1887, making this 264 N. Exeter today.) He later moved in 1849 to a pen at 18 S. Frederick Street, which he noted was the house "with trees in front." He always made a point in his ads that he was ready to pay "cash for Negroes," often repeating the declaration in each ad.