Despite Paul Edmonson's desperate efforts to delay the sale of his children so he could raise sufficient money to purchase their freedom, the slave trading partners Bruin & Hill from Alexandria, Virginia, bought the six Edmonson siblings. Under inhumane conditions, the siblings were transported by ship to New Orleans, where they were set at a very high price—$1,200 each. New Orleans was the largest slave market in the nation, and well known for selling "fancy girls" (pretty light-skinned enslaved young women) as sex slaves.