Raised in an elite family in the South Carolina Upcountry, Creswell eventually moved to New Orleans, where he specialized in "acclimated" slaves, meaning people who had spent most of their lives enslaved in the Mississippi River basin so they were more likely to have acquired immunity to the region's endemic contagious diseases.

This gave him a market niche distinct from many of his competitors, who typically imported slaves from Chesapeake region of the Upper South, or from border states as far as west as Missouri.

The legal documentation of the case and the "succession of Elihu Creswell" is a valuable primary source on the slave trade in New Orleans and the history of slavery in Louisiana.

A judge ultimately rejected Sarah Hunter Creswell's petition and in 1853 when the steamer Cherokee departed New Orleans, among the passengers aboard were 51 free people of color bound for New York.

"[14] In May 1848, the sheriff of Adams County reported via newspaper advertisement that a "quite likely" 23-year-old woman named Charlotte had been placed in the jail at Natchez as a fugitive slave and that she said her legal owner was Elihu Creswell of New Orleans.

In 1850 Creswell was advertising regularly in the New Orleans Daily Picayune, offering acclimated slaves to distinguish them from other people available for purchase.

[20] Richard had lived his whole life with his mother Molly and his brother Louis in the household of Glapion and his consort Marie Laveau, the famed "voodoo priestess" of New Orleans.

[22] In July 1850 a runaway slave ad seeking a "tall, yellow" 20-year-old Frances stated that she had recently be purchased from E. Creswell suggested that a "certain individual has her harbored in the Second Municipality and he may send her up the river or across the lake.

"[23][24] In August 1850 Creswell sold a "griffone slave for life" named Ann Howard, approximately 22 years old, "guaranteed against all redhibitory vices, maladies, and deficits" to Christopher Pasteur of New Orleans.

To equalize the value, Pasteur paid Creswell $100 cash at the time of transaction and owned another $100 plus eight percent annual interest due on November 1, 1851.

[25] By the end of the year 1850, Creswell was regularly advertising that he wished to purchase 100 slaves for resale and that "highest cash prices will be paid.

[27] Another lawsuit from this period involved the death of heavily pregnant Clarissa who had two young children, was sold by Creswell, and was transported to Arkansas where she died before giving birth.

[28][b] In spring or early summer 1851, two little girls were taken from the custody of their mother Sarah Ann, age 22 or 24, and grandmother Charity, and placed in Creswell's slave depot.

[32] According to historian Maurie McInnis, Creswell's slave mart was a "two-story brick commercial structure fronted on Common Street, a block west of the St. Charles Hotel.

After the American Civil War, descendants often "scrubbed" the reputations of their slave-trading relations,[36] disguising their antebellum careers with euphemisms like "was in the mercantile business," or by claiming that they had worked as "brokers" or "cotton traders" or even "gamblers."

All the other slaves he owned were also freed by his will, and Creswell ordered that "some trustworthy man" be appointed to relocate them to the "free United States," expenses paid.

[37] Creswell's mother was due the balance of his estate, valued at tens of thousands of dollars, and she sued to prevent the manumission of the slaves.

[37][39] One historian stated that "except for an orphaned infant who obviously could not care for herself and a slave too ill to make the journey, [all] were eventually taken by Creswell's executor to New York and set free.

"[40] The forced migration of 51 people, away from the home where Creswell's "acclimated slaves" had likely been born and raised took place in 1853, when the packet steamship Cherokee departed New Orleans for New York.

[44] As historian Steven Deyle put it in Carry Me Back (2005): "While there is no record of any slave traders feeling guilt over what they did for a living, the actions taken by the New Orleans dealer Elihu Creswell do raise some questions.