For many years prior to the war the breeding and raising of negroes had become as much of a standard business in Virginia as the planting and raising of cotton had formerly been, or as the breeding and raising of cattle still is in Texas. As the lands became poorer in Virginia from long cultivation, the raising of crops became less and less profitable, until it was finally discovered that to raise about enough of crops to supply themselves and their negroes with bread and clothing, and to devote all else of their thoughts and energies to the raising of negroes for market and use in States where the climate and quality of soil made the raising of cotton and rice a remunerative business, would, in the long run, be much more profitable to them. This, therefore, became the general sense of the State, and from thenceforth was generally pursued throughout the State. This necessitated middlemen, or slave merchants--such as would purchase the slave of the Virginia farmer at such price as might be agreed upon, take him or her to his place of business, put them in the best possible trim for a market, and then take them off in droves to South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, or wherever else needed, and sell them at private or public sale for the best prices they could obtain. Whatever inhumanity there might be in such business, it certainly resulted in large profits, especially to the dealers, and hence it is not at all surprising that a great many should have been engaged in it.
When the war commenced there were hundreds, if not thousands, of these slave-dealers throughout the South. Some went into the army; some, who had well-filled purses, fled to Cuba, to 'Canada, to Nassau, to England; while others, too poor to get away, too cowardly to fight, too lazy to work, and too ignorant to do any business other than what they had been doing, remained in the country and continued to ply their vocation whenever and wherever opportunity offered. It was a fixed policy with the Confederate Government not to allow slaves to be taken or sold beyond their bounds, and that every possible precaution be taken to prevent the escape of slaves into the Union lines; but the Government had no objection to the sale and transfer of slaves from Virginia to Georgia, or to any other of the Confederate States, and as the Union army advanced into Virginia, rather encouraged such sales and transfers, to prevent the escape of slaves into the Union lines. The effect of this was to make an active and very profitable business for slave-dealers, and to largely increase the number of slaves in the more southern of the Confederate States.