Byrd Hill

Byrd Hill (November 18, 1800 – September 28, 1872) was a slave trader of Tennessee and Mississippi prior to the American Civil War.

Byrd Hill has been described as one of the "big four" slave traders in the centrally located city of Memphis on the Mississippi River.

[1] Hill was partners for a time with Nathan Bedford Forrest and is believed to have resold six of the Africans illegally trafficked to the United States on the Wanderer in 1859.

[5] In 1840 he appears to have lived in the northern division of Marshall County, Mississippi in a household with a wife and five small children, and nine slaves.

[8] His wife Louisa A. Hill, who died May 15, year unknown, is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

According to historian Timothy S. Huebner, "In at least one instance, Hill and Forrest bought and then sold a free Black couple, an action that, had it been discovered at the time, might have led to legal trouble.

With a mart on Adams Street, Hill & Forrest also 'sold on commission,' meaning that the firm would serve as a broker, selling others' slaves for a percentage of the sale.

Thursday, 28th, 1859[21] On July 7, 1859, Byrd Hill bought the slave yard of Nathan Bedford Forrest for US$30,000 (equivalent to $1,017,333 in 2023).

[27] In November 1867 he lived three miles south of Memphis, on the old State Line road,[28] and had a valuable horse stolen from his property; he offered a reward of US$100 (equivalent to $2,180 in 2023) for its return.

A death notice that appeared in the Memphis Avalanche stated that he was a man "known to thousands of former residents of this city...Before the war he was a dealer in slaves, in the building now known as the Central House.