Non-musical history for today: 1859 – The two-day Great Slave Auction, once thought to be the largest such auction in United States history, began. The story goes that after his ex-wife, actress Fanny Kemble, published a journal of the horrors the enslaved people at his plantation endured, absentee plantation owner Pierce Mease Butler couldn’t get reestablished in the free-labor market, he authorized the sale of nearly 440 slaves to pay off debts and such. Good for you, Fanny!
Music history, album anniversaries, birthdays, and deaths for March 2.